New Technique For Optical Storage Claims 1 Petabyte On a Single DVD

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New Technique For Optical Storage Claims 1 Petabyte On a Single DVD

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 20, 2013 @09:32PM from the that's-a-long-movie dept.

melios writes "Using a two-light-beam method a company claims to have overcome Abbe's Law to dramatically increase the storage density for optical media, to the 9 nm scale. From the article: 'The technique is also cost-effective and portable, as only conventional optical and laser elements are used, and allows for the development of optical data storage with long life and low energy consumption, which could be an ideal platform for a Big Data centre.'"

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Good! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-20 21:38 · Score: 5, Funny

I was wondering where my pron collection would fit...
1. Re:Good! by nospam007 · 2013-06-20 21:42 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  And you can copy such a disk in just under a week.
2. Re:Good! by RicktheBrick · 2013-06-21 03:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Put a male and a female rat in a cage and they will have sex until the male grows tired of the female. Take the female out and replace her with another female and the male will find new energy to have sex. It is the same with porn. There is no need to save it since after viewing them a couple of times one will grow tired of them and they will not have the same effect as the first time. This is why there will always be a market for new porn with a new fresh legal young girl. Its in our dna and their is nothing one can do about it.
3. Re:Good! by phrackthat · 2013-06-21 06:05 · Score: 2
  
  This is known as the Coolidge Effect, after a joke that went around about President Calvin Coolidge:
  
  The President and Mrs. Coolidge were being shown [separately] around an experimental government farm. When [Mrs. Coolidge] came to the chicken yard she noticed that a rooster was mating very frequently. She asked the attendant how often that happened and was told, "Dozens of times each day." Mrs. Coolidge said, "Tell that to the President when he comes by." Upon being told, President asked, "Same hen every time?" The reply was, "Oh, no, Mr. President, a different hen every time." President: "Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge."
  It is also the reason why high availability of internet porn may be having negative consequences on the male mind - in nature we wouldn't have an unlimited supply of different females to get it on with and our brain doesn't differentiate between the excitement generated from porn and the real thing. See the TED talk on "The Great Porn Experiment" and Your Brain on Porn.
Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by OliWarner · 2013-06-20 21:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Supersnore. It's another year and another story about 1000-sublayer thick DVDs using multispectral lasers to fit ALL the DVDs on it. But how many of those make it to market? How robust is it? How much does that media cost?
I've been reading stories like this for 20 years and I still get little-girl-meets-Bieber excited when I think about being able to back up to just one disk... But it never happens. Spinning rust remains the cheapest and most convenient mass-storage device.
1. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by Crookdotter · 2013-06-20 21:46 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  If I've RTFA correctly, this is one layer. they are circumventing Abbe's law by superimposing 2 beams where an effective write only occurs at the overlap, allowing a writing beam of 9nm.
2. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by jkflying · 2013-06-20 22:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Almost. The overlap causes destructive interference, so the only place where the write occurs is in the centre where there *isn't* overlap. But yeah, this is single layer.
  
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  Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
3. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by AbRASiON · 2013-06-20 22:54 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  This man needs +6, seriously.
  I've been reading these stories almost once a year since I first got on the internet in 1996.
  Seriously, they shouldnt' even be linked to at this point.
4. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by somersault · 2013-06-20 23:33 · Score: 2
  
  Why not? We've had DVD, HD-DVD, and blu-ray.. no reason to believe that we won't have more iterations in commonly available optical storage devices.. thought I doubt we'll be using them for anything other than backups.. or should I say I hope we won't be needing them for anything else..
  
  --
  which is totally what she said
5. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by Pinky's+Brain · 2013-06-20 23:51 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  A single diffractive optical element could achieve both those functions, but those can't get below the diffraction limit either in the general case (superoscillations can do it as a special case, but those don't really produce spots).
  What they are actually using is two photon absorption, the two beam setup allows them to have a tighter distribution of two photon absorption events.
6. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by philip.paradis · 2013-06-21 00:07 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Bieber is a lesbian, not a pedophile, at least not that we know of.
  
  --
  Write failed: Broken pipe
7. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by DoctorBit · 2013-06-21 00:41 · Score: 2
  
  I remember reading breathless news articles about holographic memory in magazines like Scientific American and Omni back in 1987. Maybe I've become an old cynic but I'll believe it when I see it. Sure would be cool if it was true though. I'm tired of having to buy three hard drives to store one hard drives worth of data. (one on-site and one off-site backup)
8. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by bill_mcgonigle · 2013-06-21 00:50 · Score: 2
  
  Slashdot would be better if we could see the mods who give points to factually incorrect emotional rants. Mods: fine, don't read TFA but save the points for the next story.
  
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  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
9. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-21 00:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  CD: 650 MB
  DVD: 4.7-8.5 GB (7-13x CD)
  Blu-Ray: 25-50 GB (6x DVD)
  1 PB is 20,000x Blu-Ray.
  One of these things is not like the others.
  Yup, and it's Blu-Ray. Almost as many letters as the other three combined, plus it uses vowels!
10. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by L4t3r4lu5 · 2013-06-21 01:36 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Nuh uh.
  
  Magic.
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
11. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by nospam007 · 2013-06-21 02:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "If I've RTFA correctly, ..."
  (gasp) an actual, genuine AR, don't frighten him, they are very rare.
12. Re:Optical density, schmoptical schmensity! by GrumpySteen · 2013-06-21 03:10 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  That's what meta-moderation is for.
I really love this by erroneus · 2013-06-20 21:50 · Score: 4, Funny

I have been looking forward to this for a long, long time... I
As screw the build up. I just wanted to say "peta-file" It's a funny word.
at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by etash · 2013-06-20 21:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

it will take about 1million seconds to fill it or about 11.5 days
1. Re:at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by TheRaven64 · 2013-06-20 22:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  If I had an optical disk that had that kind of write speed and sufficiently cheap media, I'd use it with a log-structured filesystem. The real data would be on some other media, and the optical disk would record every transaction. When the disk filled up, I'd pop a new one in, have it write a complete snapshot (about 40 minutes for a 2TB NAS, and I could probably buffer any changes in that period to disk / flash) and then go back to log mode. Each disk would then be a backup that would be able to restore my filesystem to any point in the period. Actually, given my average disk writes, one of these disks would store everything I write to disk for about 200 years, so it would probably want more regular snapshots or the restore time of playing back the entire journal would be too long. Effectively, the append-only storage system becomes your authoritative data store and the hard disks and flash just become caches for better random access.
  The problem, of course, is the 'sufficiently cheap media' part. When CDs were introduced, I had a 40MB hard drive and the 650MB hard disk was enough for every conceivable backup. When CD-Rs were cheap, I had a 5GB hard drive and a CD was just about big enough for my home directory, if I trimmed it a bit. When DVDs were introduced, I had a 20GB hard drive and a 4.5GB layer was just about enough for my home directory. When DVD-Rs were cheap, I had an 80GB hard drive in my laptop, and 4.5GB was nowhere near enough. Now, the 25GB on an affordable BD-R is under 10% of my laptop's flash and laughable compared to the 4TB in my NAS.
  If they can get it to market when personal storage is still in the tens of TBs range, then it's interesting.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
2. Re:at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by L4t3r4lu5 · 2013-06-20 23:26 · Score: 2
  
  1million seconds ... or about 11.5 days
  Well, which is it?! Don't leave me hangin', bro!
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
3. Re:at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by taiwanjohn · 2013-06-21 01:30 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Another idea: At such high density, who needs a 5.25" disc anyway? A postage stamp would be plenty, and could enable some interesting mobile applications, for just one example.
  
  --
  XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
4. Re:at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by jedidiah · 2013-06-21 02:31 · Score: 2
  
  ...can't say that I've ever encountered problems like that.
  It's not been for lack of trying either.
  Although I have never been one to use the cheapest crappiest option available. That helps sometimes.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
5. Re:at an OPTIMISITC writing speed of 1GB/sec by Mal-2 · 2013-06-21 03:46 · Score: 2
  
  If you can get the storage media down to postage stamp size, would it even be necessary to rotate it? It seems an S-shaped or raster scanning path becomes reasonable at that point, lowering power consumption and/or latency when accessed after a period of non-use. It doesn't really matter whether the medium moves or the scan head does, or some combination of both. For example, it could scan in a manner similar to a laser printer -- the medium moves on one axis, the scan path moves on the other. We already move the scan head on one axis with optical media, we'd just be exchanging rotation for linear motion in the other axis.
  
  --
  How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Wonderful by Chrisq · 2013-06-20 22:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Now our politicians and bankers can leave even more customer information on a train.
1. Re:Wonderful by coofercat · 2013-06-21 00:14 · Score: 2
  
  Pff! Think "Hollywood":
  "It means we can now pack even more non-fast-forwardable features to the start of a film. Just imagine, we could sell a week of 24x7 advertising on every film - we'd make more money than even we ever dreamed of!"
2. Re:Wonderful by L4t3r4lu5 · 2013-06-21 01:38 · Score: 2, Offtopic
  
  Want to skip non-fast-forwardable content? Start the DVD as normal, then press Stop. You'll be returned to your DVD players boot screen. Press Stop again, then press Play. The DVD feature will start immediately.
  
  You can thank me with a +1 Informative mod.
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
That's not a DVD by dutchwhizzman · 2013-06-20 22:24 · Score: 2

Sure, it's pedantic, but a DVD holds only about 9GB on a dual layer disc. It may be a disc with the same form factor, but it's not a DVD. You could just as well say "holds one Petabyte on a single CD", which also wouldn't be true.

--
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Great news for ASICS by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-20 22:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is great news for ASICS. Maskless direct write is the holy grail for this. Most of the cost of IC making now lies in the mask set and cost 10's of millions of dollars for a top line chip. There are ways to 'double up' mask steps into one reticule to save money on medium volume ICs and small volume has to be done on MultiProjectWafers.
Direct write is slow but with a multiple beam setup that can be speeded up. I'm thinking what Mapper Technology is trying to do with e-beam.
Optical media sucks... by RedBear · 2013-06-20 23:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

I've just about had it with all optical media in general. I've had numerous CDs and DVDs over the years that just stopped being readable without even having any visible damage. Both self-written and factory discs. I'm only halfway through re-watching a retail set of Stargate SG-1 DVDs I purchased at Costco for $179.99 just 3-4 years ago, and I've already encountered a handful of discs with serious defects. Learned my lesson not to buy physical media anymore. Once I finish torrenting a good pirated version of the series I'll probably never try to watch the DVDs again. The box is nice though.
Bottom line is even if one of these amazingly high density optical media schemes finally pans out, the media will need to be composed of pure diamond or something else incredibly durable, and have a filesystem with incredible levels of error correction and redundancy or it will be pointless to put even a terabyte of data on such a disc, much less a petabyte. And that's not even bringing up read/write speeds and other issues that have already made this type of media useless for many purposes.
1. Re:Optical media sucks... by Pinky's+Brain · 2013-06-20 23:58 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It's not deterioration of the plastic which causes CDs/DVDs to be unreliable, it's de-lamination of the reflective layer and deterioration of the organic dye for the recordable ones. The first is just causes by poor manufacturing, the second is a little more serious but the method in this article doesn't use dyes, it uses photopolymerization ... which would not necessarily be as failure prone.
Don't get excited until it ships by sirwired · 2013-06-20 23:36 · Score: 4, Insightful

Those clowns at InPhase ("Holographic Discs") were like the Duke Nukem Forever of storage; well over a decade, and no shipping product.
For now, I put this in the same pile as the Windows Database File System and Laptop Fuel Cells.
Stimulated emission and depletion by oojah · 2013-06-21 02:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

The "one beam going through a doughnut beam" technique is well known through STED microscopy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STED_microscopy
STED is a superresolution technique for imaging when using fluorophores.
This is a very nice idea using the technique in a different way for a different application.

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Re:Blow through your cap by fahrbot-bot · 2013-06-21 04:38 · Score: 2

With even home Internet providers enforcing monthly caps, how will you fit your 3D 4K movies across a home Internet connection without having to take a week off surfing after streaming a single movie?
With this new technique, Netflix can just actually send you 1 disc with *all* the movies on it...

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It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Re:Blow through your cap by tepples · 2013-06-21 06:00 · Score: 2

for video, for a given bit stream size, are you better off with higher resolution and higher compression, or lower resolution and lower compression?
That depends. Downscaling and compressing at lower resolution is in theory equivalent to running a blur filter over the whole high-resolution picture and then compressing the blurred high-resolution picture. But in practice, video codecs prefer to handle features of a given size. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 use 8x8 pixel cosine transform blocks, as do H.263-style codecs such as Spark, ASP (DivX), and Theora. H.264 and VP8 use variable transform block size to efficiently handle both flat areas and detailed areas in the same picture. Video codecs also differ in what sizes of motion they compensate for. Some codecs support precision down to the quarter or even eighth pixel, while others support only half pixels. Other codecs aren't effective at 1080p HD because their maximum displacements aren't big enough.