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Iomega Patents 850GB DVD Nano-Technology

Posted by CmdrTaco on

Mike writes "US Patent & Trademark Office recently issued a patent to Iomega Corp. for its work with nano-technology and optical data storage. New technology, called Articulated Optical - DVD will allow 40-100 times more data (upto 850 Gb) to be stored on a DVD with data transfer rates 5-30 times faster than today's DVDs, and at similarly low costs. AO - DVD is a novel technique of encoding data on the surface of a DVD by using reflective nano-structures to encode data in a highly multi-level format."

5 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. Space abundance by Council · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The inevitable situation is that we will have unlimited space -- that is, more than we can fill. So what happens when we can quite easily put every piece of digital media we've ever even thought about owning -- all the movies, all the games -- on a single disk, without ever having to delete anything?

    I really don't know -- it's an interesting question, both similar and dependent on the question of what happens when we have bandwidth abundance. I don't know the answer. What do you think?

    One thing that I think is likely is that we will stop trying to organize our data with a tree metaphor and move more toward a search-based system, like how iTunes organizes music. It seems a likely possibility.

    --
    xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
    1. Re:Space abundance by diggem · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One of the uses for all that storage is for memory enhancing systems. See wearable computing.

      Basically, the computer records and stores your daily activities. Say earlier you met some nice young chica, or a friend with a great business oportunity. Whatever, it's been recorded for you and is indexed and searchable.

      "What was her number?" Play it back later on, you have it. Etc..

      At least, that's one use for mega-storage. You need speedy processing to go along with it to enable face and voice recognition. I always forget names, it'd be nice to have a cue when I see somebody the next time.

    2. Re:Space abundance by Monoman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unlimited space might take a while. The more abundant space becomes the more we can turn up the quality of digitizing audio, video, etc.

      * Regarding search-based system *

      I was first exposed to a search/tag-based filing system by Opera's M2 mail client. It wasn't until Gmail and del.icio.us that I realized the advantages of search/tag-based filing systems. It finally hit me like a brick and I felt I had to tell all of my friends and get them on board.

      Now however, the more I think about it the more I start to think this won't be the panacea it looks like at first. Think about having ALL of your files in ONE folder in a few years. When I say ALL, I mean emails, documents, music, video, data files, etc. What happens when you need to manually find something because for whatever reason searching won't do the job?

      Imagine looking through tens of thousands of files with counter-intuitive names (file001.jpg, readme-542.txt, etc). Imagine how slow the "old" tools (dir, explorer, ls, etc) will work with those tens of thousands of files in one folder. Frustration will set in very very quickly.

      I am still a proponent of the search/tag-based approach but I think it will need to be incorporated into the hierarchical system currently in use.

      and what do I really know.

      --
      Keep the Classic Slashdot.
  2. DVD's as backup by phorm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    (some of these apply to tape as well)

    a) Burn times are a big factor here, sure 850GB is great... but not if it takes almost a day for a backup run. Current DVD burning is fairly fast though... so hopefully we get good speeds (5-30 times faster than today's DVDs sounds promising)

    b) If (a) works out well, and discs don't cost a crapload... you can burn multiple DVD's just in case of disc-rot. Store both in good conditions. Media is still subject to reliability, but many a company has relied on tapes as well only to find them demagnetized, etc at restore time (TEST those tapes, people).

    c) Storage space could be saved big-time with this, and a multi-disk burner could be fairly easy to setup too

    d) Tapes may not rot as easily, but DVD's don't get mad if you post 'em up using hard-drive magnets :-)

  3. Buffing compound by ka9dgx · · Score: 3, Interesting
    A good friend of mine does service for Auto Dealers. They had a similar situation with critical data on a CD. He took the CD, went out to the body shop, put some buffing compound on it, buffed it up, rinsed, and it was as good as new.

    Letting a company go out of business because they don't understand the basics of the technology speaks volumes about the loss of American Inginuity.

    --Mike--