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NTT Develops Stamp-Size 1GB Hologram Memory
sandalwood writes "NTT has developed a new high-capacity memory storage device based on thin-film holography called Info-MICA. The official site is here but it's only in Japanese for now. According to the article, 'NTT is planning to bring the first commercial Info-MICA products to market in 2005 with a postage stamp-size ROM and a memory capacity of 1GB.' My first thought was that it would be perfect for a future handheld game device!"
Is it more reliable than flash memory? I've heard there's a couple rovers that could probably use an upgrade ;)
...they mean never.
Great news for those of us wishing to have enough physical space to install UT2005.
...
Hopefully they'll develop one that can go on my arm right next to the nicotine patch, for when I'm on vacation and away from my computers.
"My first thought was that it would be perfect for a future handheld game device!"
Yeah, soon we'll have GTA available on our cell phones, pagers and the like.
I want the Positronic brain! Stick that baby in my head and I'm good to go for a perfect score on the GRE!
This is my sig.
This I don't understand. How can it be readable if it is uncopyable?
The unofficial
was that Apple would get its hands on that tech for a future iPod...
Portable pr0n. Yeehaw!
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
Depending on the durability of this stuff under the influence of abrasion and direct impact (they do suggest that it be bound to the outside of packaging) it would make a nice way to store information on ID cards, requiring no electrical contacts.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
See, my first thought is that it'd be perfect for portable music devices, as opposed to gaming. This would better enable innocuous music devices (i.e. that which could be hidden in the lining of a jacket/glove/etc.) whereas gaming devices are going to be held in your hands no matter what (until we shift to full-on wearable computers, i.e. xybernaut).
"Stumble before you crawl"
Hmmm... I'm guessing that's only true if the company manages to become the sole producers of the readers or has tight control over the spec (see previous /. article on the power of security through obscurity). If it becomes an open standard then all one would have to do is build a bit-by-bit reader and it should be easily copied to another format (at 1GB, DVD for instance).
And my forst thought was "postage stamp"?! WTF is a postage stamp!?!?.. Haven't they heard of email??..
NTT Develops Stamp-Size 1GB Hologram Memory
February 16, 2004 (TOKYO) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) announced on Feb 12 that it has developed a prototype of a new high-capacity memory storage device, designed with a multi-layered waveguide structure and based on thin-film holography.
(photo 1) Info-MICA memory media prototype
The company has produced a 100-layer postage stamp-sized media prototype with a 1GB memory capacity constructed from plastic material, and a small prototype drive for reading data.
The new memory is named Info-MICA (Information-Multilayered Imprinted CArd) because it has a layered structure similar to that of a mica stone, according to NTT.
Info-MICA comprises a technology that stores and retrieves digital information based on the principle of thin-film holography.
Information is pre-recorded as follows: first, digital data is encoded into a 2D image, then the 2D image is translated into a hologram by CGH (Computer Generated Hologram) technology. Finally, the hologram is recorded as a sub-micron concave-convex pattern in each waveguide layer of the media. For data retrieval, a laser beam is focused at the end of a waveguide layer, then the light propagates in the waveguide and is scattered by the concave-convex pattern. The scattered light generates the 2D image on the plane parallel to the waveguide. This 2D image is captured by an image sensor and decoded into the original digital data.
Compared with existing memory devices, Info-MICA offers data storage on plastic media with the following characteristics:
1) The media has extremely high memory density;
2) The drive is small and its power consumption is very low;
3) The media can be mass produced at low cost;
4) Copying of the media is very difficult;
5) The media is totally recyclable.
Based on these characteristics, the following three major applications are being considered for Info-MICA:
The first application is use as a replacement of semiconductor ROM (Read Only Memory) because Info-MICA is small in size and considerably cheaper for the equivalent ROM capacity. Widespread adoption of Info-MICA is expected by the electronic dictionary sector, where higher data storage capacity is required to accommodate large volumes of dictionaries. Similar applications include the "pachinko" slot machine industry, in which high data storage capacity is required to support the display of detailed graphics, as well as navigation systems in motor vehicles.
(photo 2) Prototype drive for reading data from Info-MICA
The second application is the introduction of Info-MICA as a replacement of paper products that are used for distributing information. Info-MICA is suited to the mass distribution of information as it is easily disposable and it can be recycled. Info-MICA media can be attached as cover-mounted media to magazines and other merchandise, or it can be distributed alone as a ticket or coupon.
The third application is for releasing multimedia content such as games, music, movies and electronic publications. This application will benefit from Info-MICA's high storage capacity and the difficulty for reproducing illegal Info-MICA copies. Info-MICA drives will be installed in cellular phones and portable game machines, where it will satisfy their demanding requirements for low power consumption and limitations in size. The use of an Info-MICA drive in portable devices will enable users to enjoy rich multimedia content at any time and any place. In particular, key organizations in the music industry (which continues to be challenged by the problem of content piracy) are examining Info-MICA as a promising next-generation standard media for minimizing the illegal copying of content.
NTT is planning to bring the first commercial Info-MICA products to market in 2005 with a postage stamp-size ROM and a memory capacity of 1GB.
The estimated cost of a mass-produced Info-MICA product will depend on the volumes that are manufactured, but initial
Their proposed uses are all very well, but I think this could be even more significant for video. Even with their current versions you'd need 8 chips to hold the same amount as a DVD: it's likely that the capacity will increase pretty quickly once the technology settles down so there's no reason they shouldn't replace HD-DVDs even before the format gets established. The big advantage is that a video based around these could be built into a cartridge a bit like the old games console cartridges. With no exposed optical surface to get scratched, durability could be a lot better than optical discs. Also the readers would be far simpler electromechanically, leading to cheaper, more durable players.
Of course, whether the content-provision industries consider cheap, durable media and players a good thing is open to question...
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
I've heard of thin-film holography before but I didn't think too progress was being made in the way of making it more robust. Does anyone know if this stuff will be reliable? or...will we be creating something even less reliable than a zip disk :)
<conspiracy type='rant'>Perhaps, this technology is being secretly funded by the zip disk industry in an attempt to make their technology look that much better. For that reason I say down with thin-film holography</conspiracy>
--Thei Antispamist A useless endevor that will cer
Any idea on the data read rate of these things?
Also, I doubt this is the DRM answer to everything. As soon as their is a PC reader you can copy the contents of one of these things to any format you want. Digital is digital doesn't matter the format.
My first thought was that it would be perfect for a future handheld game device!
My first thought was that it would be perfect to store 3D porn images.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
remember when the first CDs were impossible for the end-user to copy?
yes?
good.
Dr. W.C. Minor will be really proud that his life's work can now be stored on a postage stamp sized ROM.
For those who don't know, Dr W.C. Minor provided thousands of entries to the Oxford Dictionary. He was a certified lunatic and did all his work from a mental assylum.
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
...this is certainly the future of portable storage. It has the size of flash memory, but it also has the low-cost ability for mass production as CD-ROMs. I'm sure that in due time, as with CDs, they will become re-writeable as well. But for now, I'd be more than happy to use these.
My only question would be how easily the drive can be written to - is the writing apparatus at the moment too large to fit into portable devices, is the energy drain too large, etc. It has some uses at the moment, and I can see it improving in the future. But I couldn't say how near.
webpage
On the linked website it merely says "hard to copy". I suspect they mean "hard to make copies in the same medium" and are therefore planning to control the availability of the machines to create these ROMs.
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
One of my primary concerns regarding media and my clients is the longevity of the media. Particularly with writable media, exposure to excessive heat, light, humidity, mechanical stress and other environmental factors can significantly impair the life of this media. The article makes no effort to address this issue, yet it is an issue of critical importance to users of all media.
I'm not trying to be cynical and cast undue doubt, but we need to have some type of affirmative response regarding this issue from the developers of what could be a very important technology in the future.
Is this a really earth shattering advance? Perhaps the media composition and the fact that's it's transparent adds to the coolness factor.
Making a gaming device thinner and lighter with this technology is still highly useful, as it will be easier to store in a pocket and carry around, and 1 GB should be far more than most Game boy cartridges hold these days.
The screen still has to be viewable so there are limits to how small you can make such a device, but PDAs have been getting thinner and lighter and its because of improvements in miniaturization of components.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Stories like this make me wonder, how much longer until it becomes common to buy PCs that come with a large bank of non-volatile memory instead of hard drives? The faster access time would be nice, but what I'd really be excited about is the dramatically reduced failure rate.
I recently had to send in my laptop to get the IBM 2.5" HD replaced (it was grinding slowly in oblivion), and luckily I was able to convince it keep running (a few "gentle" thumps on the table) long enough to burn some backup CDs.
I would love to have 30 GBs of flash memory to use instead of a comparatively huge unwieldly hard drive full of delicate moving parts. This would be great for laptops considering there'd be less heat produced, less energy consumed, less spaced used, and improved durability.
Maybe 5 years down the road we'll all have 1" thin laptops with low power comsumption that are both durable and powerful?
ce n'est pas un Sig.
The site itself is too FLASH-y to translate entirely, but here's the FAQ from the site, roughly translated by the fish. Very interesting.
//www.phlab.ecl.ntt.co.jp/theme/2003/2003_12_01.pd f
---
The information mica (Info-MICA) with it is some abbreviation?
The abbreviation of Information Multi-layered Imprinted CArd. The mica of the ore (mica) it is designation from the meaning, memory medium which had the stratified structure the way.
---
It is operational principle of the information mica, general "cubic measure hologram" being how to be different, it does "thin film hologram"?
As for thin film hologram, thickness of hologram wave length of light, is hologram when it is thinner than that. Vis-a-vis the reference beam which has wave length and the incident direction where the condition for causing diffraction is loose, differs, you can obtain diffracted light. It is hologram when on the one hand, as for cubic measure hologram, thickness of hologram is sufficiently thicker than wave length of light. Diffraction condition is harsh, generates diffracted light only vis-a-vis the wave length of specification and the reference beam which has incident direction. Until recently, if you mention hologram memory of bulk, those which are based on this cubic measure hologram principle were main current.
---
Information mica medium has, is "laminating guided wave road structure" some kind of ones?
The layer whose refractive index is high (core layer) with low layer (the clad layer), it means the thing of the structure which is laminated alternately. When laser light incidence is done in this, light being shut in the same way as the optical fiber near core layer, it keeps being spread. With the information mica, unevenness pattern is provided in each core layer, light disperses with this. As for this unevenness pattern, with the thin film hologram which beforehand can soak information, scattered light forms the picture, in order for it to be possible to recover information from this picture, is designed. In addition, by the fact that the layer which incidence it can point laser light is selected, the information which is remembered in each stratum can be recovered individually.
---
The computer hologram which is used in the optical design of the information mica (CGH: Computer-Generated Hologram) With it is what?
In order for the playback image of desire to be formed, it is the hologram which is synthesized in the calculation of the computer.
---
You have adopted with the information mica, is "opening multiple" some kind of data multiplex access method?
Multiple doing the information every of opening in 1 inside layer of medium, it means the thing of the system which you remember. With thin film hologram, incidence it just can point to laser light to 1 layer of specification, it is possible to play back the picture which instantly has mass information. But, the fine picture which was played back from hologram medium and the pixel pitch where the cheap general-purpose image pickup element of CCD and the like is rough there was density difference of 2 columns between, it was difficult to take in image at one time with the general-purpose image pickup element. With the information mica, because high density memory is actualized making use of the cheap image pickup element of marketing, the filter which possesses plural opening between medium and the image pickup element is provided, from midst of plural opening one of desire is consecutively selected and the method of keeping recovering the information of 1 inside layer in the time series by it keeps opening, is adopted. (Reference link) Http:
---
Is mass production commercial business conversion of the information mica when around?
You have aimed towar
everything in moderation
Next year, a 2GB chip line is started with the brand name "Isolinear"
what if you can buy an iPod that comes pre-loaded with an entire catalogue of music? or with one of those MICA card readers, so you can buy music catalogues on MICA cards and switch between them?
At one dollar per four megabytes of AAC audio, do you think people are really going to want to spend $250 extra paying the record labels for 25 good songs and 225 filler?
Take a Hologram (preferably on glass) and drop it about 6 feet to a hard floor. Yes, it shatters. Now pick up any piece of the hologram and look at it closely. While the data has lost some detail, the whole image is still recorded in each piece.
What happens if I take a hole punch to this thing? Do I still get the meaning if not the details? Heck, it probably can't be read at all!
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
You could only put film and music with small titles on it. Anything too long and it will be too small to read. I mean, you couldn't put "Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World" on it.
I've got that problem with MMC cards already. I've got dozens of the buggers and I always end up listening to AC/DC all day because I have no idea what's on the others. Too small to write on you see.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
for things like game consoles, the real important part is that its very inconvenient to make a copy that is still on the same media. gamecube sort of did this with their mini-dvd format i believe.
My first thought was that it would be perfect for a future handheld game device!
Umm... For those of us who don't read Japanese and aren't psychic, we have no details.
We don't know things like cost, power requirements, transfer speed, seek time, data integrity, etc.
So it's not really clear at all that this would be "perfect" for anything.
Can anyone enlighten us?
-... ---
SmartMedia cards never passed 128MB and they never will. Development on SmartMedia is dead.
CompactFlash, on the other hand, has passed 4GB and an 8GB card is due out very soon.
In addition, SD cards are past 1GB and xD cards are approaching that as well.
But the point is still valid.
Stewey
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Holographic media has great potential in this area because the holographic film can potentially store a large amount of data in a redundant fashion.
In a "typical" holographic image, one tiny cross section of the film stores the entire set of data as visible from that point, which constitutes greater than 50% and potentially up to 100% of the entire image.
I have never been convinced this type of redundancy could move into data storage, but I would be interested to hear.
Stewey
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
It's amazing how storage limits can be passed without much significant fanfare. Then I harken back to the days when a 50 MB hard drive was the size of an unabridged Proust novel!
Target data transfer rate from portable reader is 1.5Mbps. However, the technology has the "potential for higher rates," which could be realized for in-car and other applications where "increased power draw is not a concern."
They're japanese dude - that was their first thought too!
if the storage for games increase, that means we're gonna have to deal with crappier games that only focus on the aesthetics instead of whats important!
I don't want another "Barbie's Day Off" going rampant through the streets and getting five stars just because Barbie is more life-like.
Then again...
Here is a link to an article about the new SanDisk 1GB memory card.
s k1 gbsdcard.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0401/04012909sandi
Stewey
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Fixed Link
Stewey
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
But even solid-state ROM replacement will be great. GPSs you don't have to load up with where you're going, car nav systems that don't freak out when you drive over a pot-hole, language translators with all the languages in them. All with decent battery life and upgradability.
High-density solid-state memory, along with improvements in battery technology, chip substrates, and the availability of ubiquitous wireless internet access, truly have the potential to create an all-new mobile computing revolution. The kind where after five or ten years, you ask yourself, "how was it that I lived without this stuff?"
Indeed we live in interesting times.
The article says media should be 100-200 yen, which is only about $1.00 - $1.85 USD. That should be an attractive price point for music megacorps to be looking at for the next big format. If we don't go the way of downloads, I can see that these postage stamp-sized things should work well for producing new releases on.
Toss in a little compression now that MP3/FLAC/AAC are getting mature and you've got enough to hold a double album of just about any music, and great for portable and car stereos.
In the Portland, Ore area and like card games? Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandgames/
My first thought was that it would be perfect for a future handheld game device!
Dumbest thing I've ever read.
Cellphones? No. Digital Cameras? No. Portable high-quality solid state audio recorders? No. Long-term heart monitors? No.
This one thinks of some clumsy gameboy.
*sigh*
Full text of original articles:
- August 1992 article
- December 1994 article
The tune really has not changed that much. At the time the speed and capasity estimates were very impressive. As a frame of reference I just got my top of the line 1 gigabyte SCSI hard drive for my 486. It would be nice if this technology actually hit the market this time. . . ."Anything is possible with enough programmers, time and pizza." (Substitute caffeine for time as needed.)
Here is some selected information translated from Japanese Site linked to from the orignal post.
Q. What does Info-MICA stand for:
A. Information Multi-layered Imprinted CArd
Q. What are your future goals for capacity?
A. Over 10GBs, we have achieved 1.7Gbit/inch^2 per layer in the lab; there will be 100 layers per media. So if we made an SecureDigital (SD) sized media (24mm(W)x32mm(D)x2.1mm(T)) we could achieve 25GB.
Q.What is your target release date for the first devices?
A.2005
Q. What is the media made of?
A. All Plastic
Q. How much will the Info-Mica media cost.
A. Price will vary depending on how many layers, for a a 100 layer media(1GB+) the media should cost 100-200yen (91 cents- $1.82), if the media is mass produced then the cost can fall even lower.
Q. How much will the drive cost?
A. Several thousand yen ($1 is around 109 yen).
Q. How much energy will Info-MICA use?
A. Couple hundred miliwatts when reading. The goal is to produce a format for devices that was not previously possible to use CD-ROMs due to power consumtion reasons.
Q. What is the read-speed of the device.
A. The data transfer rate is directly proportional to the power consumption of the device, hence for portable devices we are aiming for 1.5Mbs but for consumer electronics or automitive Navigation systems where power consumption isn't a problem the data transfer rate can be of course increased accordingly.
For years now we've been hearing about "holographic memory" as if its some sort of holy grail of information density. But this makes no sense: if there is a film that is high enough quality to record a hologram, that same film should be usable with a non-holographic format that has an even higher density (The computation of a digital hologram is lossy).
Now one possible advantage to holographic media is that it could be very robust to data loss, as the holography process distributes the data across the media. However, this feature is not even mention in the article.
But what this drive does is only display the pre-recorded hologram, it cannot generate or modify the data stored in the hologram.
It is much, much more diffucult to record such a hologram, in marketing wording:
CDs have been successful in the past without being recordable, maybe this media, too?
The movie or record industry will surely like a type of media that only can be created by specialized (and licensed?) fabs.
-- www.linux-laser.org - Open Source Laser Show Software for Linux
Anyone can build inherent redundancy into data. In fact, CDs have inline Reed-Solomon encoding so that they can resist scratches as large as 4000 consecutive bits. The real question is how long the physical media itself will last. Given that CDs can degrade in as little as two years, how long will this last?
Again, you gave some very useful related information, but you're not really answering my question. These questions need to be answered by those developing the technology.
As someone that works in a Clinical Pharmacy environment, all I can say is Yee Haa!. This would be fantastic for a Clinical Pharmacist or even a Doctor.
There are currently Drug Reaction and Information Databases (EMIMS, Clinical Pharmacology, etc...) available for Palm Pilots, but you have to keep swapping memory cards.
A really useful approach would be to have a large selection of these types of information databases available in one device - this would reduce the time required to support Doctors with decision making on Drug combinations to treat patients. And would also improve the quality of care the patients would recieve.
Another cool use in a Hospital environment would be (if the holographic memory was cheap enough) to hand a Doctor a Handheld Device that has just had all the medical information for every patient they are about to see on rounds - zapped into it. Including X-Rays, Ultra-sounds, and everthing else that is on file for the patients.
The increase in information at your figertips, combined with having Clinical Pharmacists on your rounds with all of their information - would result in a marked increase in the quality of care the patient recieves.
Very cool
--
Got something to say? RantsRus.com - blogging for the disillusioned.
Have you noticed how the main point this press release tries to push is "this memory is very hard to copy" ? It's kind of sad when our technology is specifically designed to be useless, just to appease the RIAA.
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