Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2005/11/24/maxell_holo_storage/
Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged.
The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is capable of achieving 1.6TB per disk - and that's uncompressed capacity - with a 120MBps bandwidth.
InPhase was founded in December 2000 by Lucent, and has been working on holographic storage (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/15/holographic_storage/) - in which data is encoded as a 3D pattern written and read by laser beam - ever since. In addition to the colossal storage capacity, InPhase promises a data archive life of over 50 years, not much different to the longevity claimed by most optical media makers - a CD-RW for instance will typically retain data for 20-100 years, depending on which manufacturer you speak to.
InPhase isn't the only company promoting holographic storage. Japan's Optware - which in July won $14m in funding (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/19/toshiba_optware_investment/) from four companies, one of which was Toshiba; it also has backing from Intel Capital - is working on a DVD-sized holographic disc is says will hold more than 1TB of data with a throughput of 1Gbps.
The format is dubbed HVD - Holographic Versatile Disc - and Optware is already pushing a 200GB HVD-RW disc type through the HVD Alliance (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/07/hvd_alliance_founded/), an organisation supported by Optware, Fuji Photo and half-a-dozen or so Japanese chemicals companies. ®
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