Holographic Storage Poised To Début At Last?

[Corvair]

Although this is really several-weeks-old news, you have to take notice when you see such news articles appear more than a few times in a relative short period.

Some of you probably recall me sounding the trumpets on occasion during the past 5 or 6 or 7 years about the significance of holographic storage media over ANY existing or upcoming "conventional" optical format. The storage density / capacity, the "parallel" read/write capabilities, the lower sensitivity to debris on the surface of the medium, and the high throughput of this technology are enough to permanently send WORM DVD and CD technologies to the boneyard.

During the past, people would always ask me "When." I would always say, "In about 18 months." This became a bit of a joke back over on the "old" Storage Review (i.e. -- the predictions). Of course, as it came to be, nothing significant every really happened with holo storage -- other than a company called LOTS offering their "LaserTape" holographic tape drive for a while in 2002 (yes, there is also holographic tape!), then going out of business. Since then, nothing of significance.

Well, it looks like -- FOR REAL this time -- that the holographic storage medium is about to finally make a bona fide commercial appearance in the next 18 months.


http://www.computerworld.com/hardwa...0,10801,99464,00.html?source=NLT_ST&nid=99464


http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,98714,00.html


http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1759907,00.asp

 

[sechs]

It's dense... but how are access times?

 

[Bozo]

I'm confused
The one article said the media didn't have to be spinning.

Is the media a disk? or some sort of 'chip'? glass plates? (ala Star Trek)

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Onomatopoeic]

It's dense... but how are access times?

As for the spinning holo disc media, seek and access times can be comparable to existing CD/DVD media. But, on the upside, holo disc media can be spinning at a significantly slower rate than a CD or DVD, yet the throughput of the decoded binary data coming off the disc can be as high as any existing hard drive -- rather astounding.

I'm confused
The one article said the media didn't have to be spinning.

Is the media a disk? or some sort of 'chip'? glass plates? (ala Star Trek)

The medium can be a tape, disc, or a card.

The tape is thin like conventional magnetic, but has a holo/reflective side and an opaque backing on the opposite side.

The disc is just like a CD/DVD disc, with a reflective side and an opaque backing (label) side. You could also have a 2-sided disc medium as well, where the opaque backing is in between the 2 reflective sides and the label is situated in the small inner area near the spindle hole.

The card takes the approach of moving the read/write head across the medium as opposed to moving the medium in front of the head. With a holo card, you push the card into the reader/writer and the read/write head zigzags along the surface reading and/or writing.

 

[Gilbo]

All I can say is that I hope that these holographic media are a lot more scratch-resistant than existing optical storage media. Or that scratches won't be an issue at all.

I can't deal with another generation of media that are little more than data traps. I was tremendously excited when the Blu-Ray consortium announced that their disks would be coated with a highly scratch-resistant coating.

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

All I can say is that I hope that these holographic media are a lot more scratch-resistant than existing optical storage media. Or that scratches won't be an issue at all...

Holo storage is significantly better than CD. DVD. or BlueRay when it comes to dealing with dirt on the surface of the medium. Holo storage does not use a "pinpoint" of light for read/write as CD. DVD. or BlueRay all use, instead it reads and writes via a "window" of light. The end result is that a speck of dust won't cause a problem because it will simply be out of focus. Of course, if the speck of dust were large enough it would cause a problem, but typical dust contamination will not register since the data on a holo storage medium is actually stored on a series of layers below the surface. A speck of dust will only cause a very slight reduction in light output when the blurry complex holographic frame is read (or written).

As for scratch resistance on the data side of the disc, that's just a new outer material. There are already CD-R and DVD±R media available (TDK, I believe) with toughened data side surfaces.

 

[Corvair]

Even stodgy, conservative ol' Computerworld is finally thinking outside the box about the future of DVD:

In the contest of names, I have to say that it's a draw. HD-DVD is a marketer's dream: The format is blessed with a name that needs no introduction, given the hype over high-definition broadcast technologies and the off-the-meter popularity of DVD. But Blu-ray has a sea-breeze-like coolness factor. Together with Sony's pledge of PlayStation support, Blu-ray has a niche already carved out -- regardless of which camp, or camps, Hollywood chooses to back.

Regardless of which format wins, an even newer optical technology is already waiting in the wings, ready to douse cold water on the victory parade. Backers of the Holographic Versatile Disc announced this month that the format will support mammoth 200GB media when it launches in the fourth quarter of this year -- posing a direct challenge to blue-laser-based storage formats like Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

http://www.computerworld.com/hardwa...0,10801,99933,00.html?source=NLT_ST&nid=99933