Hitachi Maxell Develops Wafer-Thin Storage Disc

narramissic writes "Hitachi Maxell Ltd. has developed an optical disc that is less than 1/10 of a millimeter thick. Working prototypes on display at this week's Ceatec Japan 2006 exhibition are based on DVD technology and are capable of holding 4.7 GB each. Making discs so thin doesn't come without its problems, however. To make the discs rigid enough for the laser to remain in focus on the disc's surface, the company has fitted inside each drive a 0.6 millimeter-thick piece of glass through which there are holes. Air is drawn through the holes when the disc spins causing the flexible disc to be drawn against the rigid piece of glass to make it flat."

Comments

Arbitrary Python quote

[bigattichouse]

Immediately jumped to mind.

Hitachi: Eet Ees Waf-fer theen.
PC: I can't eat another Byte, I'm gonna puke..

Followed by a sony-battery-meltdown.

Re:Am I wrong?

[Anonymous Coward]

They said that about condoms but it's not stopped people using them.

what I want to know...

[joe 155]

...Is what percentage of a Library of Congress can be fit onto one of these and how many human hairs thick is it?

The obligatory question

[millennial]

So it uses air to keep the disc rigid... Does it suck or blow?

Re:The obligatory question

[Hal_Porter]

> How long was the procedure? You know, the one where they surgically removed your sense of humor.

I don't think it's possible to surgically remove a sense of humour. A person's sense of humour is spread of a large volume of brain matter, shared with many other vital functions. It's very unlikely that a subject would even survive such an operation. Since the American Handbook of Neurosurgery contains no approved procedures, it would be hard for the surgeon to obtain malpractice insurance. Indeed attempting a non approved procedure has been held by the courts to constiute de jure malpractice on every occasion that Health Care Providers have unwisely elected to allow the matter to reach them.

Your post is highly illogical, asking a non neurosurgeon the duration of an impossible surgical procedure. Perhaps you should read Wikipedia on the basics of a discipline, rather than attempting to learn about by asking about fundamentally flawed questions on an inappropriate forum, such as this.

Think of the bandwidth

[Kadin2048]

And in terms of data transmission, how many of these can we cram into a station wagon?

Re:Think of the bandwidth

[Anonymous Coward]

Station Wagon bandwidth measurements are soooo 1970s
We use "Libraries of Congress per Volkswagon Beetle" as the new SI unit since around 1980

TDz.

Could you do *this* with your regular CDs?

[Peter Trepan]

:slices through a tin can:

Are these big enough to hold The Meaning Of Life?

[Phat_Tony]

MAITRE D:
And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin disc.
MR. CREOSOTE:
Nah.
MAITRE D:
Oh, sir, it's only a tiny, little, thin one.
MR. CREOSOTE:
No. Fuck off. I'm full.
MAITRE D:
Oh, sir. Hmm?
MR. CREOSOTE:
[groan]
MAITRE D:
It's only wafer thin.
MR. CREOSOTE:
Look. I couldn't eat another byte. I'm absolutely stuffed. Bugger off.
MAITRE D:
Oh, sir, just-- just one.
MR. CREOSOTE:
[groaning] All right. Just one.
MAITRE D:
Just the one, monsieur. Voila.
MR. CREOSOTE:
[groaning]
MAITRE D:
Bon appetit.

What's the difference?

[Gription]

"So it uses air to keep the disc rigid... Does it suck or blow?"

It's interchangeable. New technology generally sucks and blows...

Looks like...

[Farrside]

I'll have to buy the White Album again.

Bond did it!

[Ice Wewe]

Hitachi Maxell Ltd. has developed an optical disc that is less than 1/10 of a millimeter thick.

In a toally unrelated story, the writers and producers of the James Bond movies, Q, and Sean Connery are sueing Hitachi for stealing their idea from the next James Bond movie...