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Holographic Storage Slated to Hit Market This Fall

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the just-in-time-for-christmas dept.

prostoalex writes "The Guardian takes a look at the current developments in the world of holographic storage. Despite being available in research for over 40 years, the technology is getting commercialized only now, with InPhase Technologies launching its 600 GB write-once disk and a drive this fall. What avout the price? "The first holographic products are certainly not mass-market — a 600GB disc will cost around $180 (£90), and the drive costs about $18,000. Potential users include banks, libraries, government agencies and corporations.""

13 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Good thinking by niceone · · Score: 5, Funny

    InPhase Technologies launching its 600 GB write-once disk and a drive this fall

    Good thinking. I mean, if they were launching the disk without the drive (or even the other way round) it would be a lot less likely to succeed.

    --
    ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
    1. Re:Good thinking by dkf · · Score: 4, Informative

      The benefits for write-once media are actually pretty clear. Suppose you've got to keep audit trails for a database containing financial data; writing it to write-once media is a pretty good way of doing it, since it's then easy to show that it wasn't tampered with. Rewritable media is useful for other things (e.g. live data).

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    2. Re:Good thinking by islanduniverse · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think the 600Gb storage capacity is a dead giveaway...

    3. Re:Good thinking by fbjon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why is this better than CD-R media?
      1) Longevity/reliability
      2) Transfer speed
      3) (600 gigabytes) / (600 megabytes) = 1 024 times better
      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    4. Re:Good thinking by dosquatch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So says you.

      Bleeding edge is always a ridiculous expense. The people who are willing to be there already know who they are. That you even raise this question means that you are not.

      OTOH, neither am I, but that's not the point. The point is, this is the first commercial volley of a new technology, which means that a few years hence it will be cheaper with even higher data densities.

      Meaning, potentially, something like the entire run of every season of every Star Trek series ever... on one disc.

      --
      "Hey, the third matrix movie would have been good except for the plot,story, and acting." --AC
    5. Re:Good thinking by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 4, Funny

      Good thinking. I mean, if they were launching the disk without the drive (or even the other way round) it would be a lot less likely to succeed.

      Yeah, that would be like a game company shipping a console before any games are available for it. Err...wait...

  2. libraries? by Anonymous+Cowpat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What kind of library has £9000 to spend on a single piece of computer hardware? It'd be substantially cheaper to buy a computer and four of those 1 TB hardisks that were mentioned yesterday, and they'd be rewritable!
    Or they could spent the £9000 on, y'know, say... books.

    --
    FGD 135
  3. I'll pass by cowscows · · Score: 4, Funny

    If the storage medium is anything other than a small, transparent, and slightly iridescent cube; then I'm not interested. Discs are so 90's.

    --

    One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  4. It is all about data transfer speed... by ZombieEngineer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article: Holographic storage offers extremely fast data transfer rates - currently up to 160Mbit/sec, though there are plans to increase this. When you have a multi-Terabyte system to backup AND verify within a short window (say 4 hours), speed trumps price just about every time. What is the cost of NOT having a backup? ZombieEngineer

  5. Re:But why? by yakumo.unr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because magnetic media fails, badly, often, and at any time.
    It is in NO way a long term backup solution.

  6. There is a need... by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    for a high density archival format, but I can't see where this even comes close.

    The manufacturer rates it at 50 year archival life, with no specifics about how that number was derived (is that an average? guaranteed for every piece of media? until an error rate of "x" is encountered? under what storage conditions?).

    It's a proprietary solution, from a single startup company - what are the odds that a reader is going to exist in 50 years? Note that the manufacturer specifically warns of a lack of backward compatibility when they state "Drive is backward read compatible for three generations; 18-24 months between generations." Having an archive of data which is inaccessible doesn't get you much.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  7. A real product? by Random+BedHead+Ed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wow, a real product. Every time I read about holographic storage, particularly on Slashdot, it's in the same sort of context in which you'd read about quantum computing or Star Trek-style teleportation. Like this: "Scientists at (fill in name of university) have managed to get (name of particle) to (some verb), a first step toward what could one day be practical (quantum computing, space elevators, carbon nanotube frisbees, or whatever). They used a (system you'd never be able to afford) to (do something even your grandkids won't be able to do), and predict that the process will be commercially viable in (about the same amount of time it will take us all to get cold fusion reactors installed in our cars)." Nice to see something like this actually come to market!

  8. Help me... by Yonder+Way · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope!