Engineering:Holographic drive
A holographic disk is a form of data storage designed for computers, created by InPhase Technologies. The smaller holographic drives can store thirty times the information of a Blu-ray Disc.
Holographic drives store information in a manner different from normal DVD drives. While DVDs hold information on the surface or just below the surface, holographic drives pack data in a gel, using a pair of laser beams that cross through the entirety of the gel. A single pulse can etch one million bits, which is four times the write speed of Blu-ray and HD DVD drives. The gel is durable enough to last for 50 years. Professional archiving disks created by Maxwell can hold 300 gigabytes of memory.
Consumer versions are expected to be released, holding 1.6 terabytes of information, and the upper expectation is that holographic drives will be capable of holding 100 terabytes of information.
| Data Disk | Capacity | Writing Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Holographic Disk | 300 GB | 960 Mbit/s. |
| Blu-ray Disc | 100 GB | 36 Mbit/s. |
| HD DVD | 30 GB | 36 Mbit/s. |
| DVD | 8.5 GB | 27 Mbit/s. |
| CD | 0.7 GB | 7.9 Mbit/s. |
References
- Popular Science, April 2007
- Next-Gen Storage: Getting to Terabytes with Holographic Storage, (October 2005) Manifest Technology.
- InPhase to ship 300GB holographic drive, (January 6, 2006) Engadget.
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