A new disc has been announced by General Electric that can store 500GB of data, easily outstripping the likes of Blu-ray and (whisper it) HD DVD.
The micro-holographic disc is capable of storing up to 1TB in the future, but uses different technology to the likes of Blu-ray and DVD.
GE's version, which is predicts will initially be used for archiving and storing large amounts of data rather than holding movies, uses the whole disc for storage, rather than just the surface like Blu-ray and DVD.
By using 3D shaped within the disc's layers, more information can be stored in a smaller space. However this theory has existed since the 1960s, and has proven difficult to manufacture.
More storage, MORE we say!
Not only that, but it would require a whole new player if it were to be used for movies and the like (although said machine could be backwards compatible with current discs) and the researchers working on Blu-ray technology have already shown it could easily cope with 400GB of data.
Actually, it's been proven that 1TB of data is theoretically possible with a high capacity Blu-ray, but surely, surely that's the work of science fiction. 400GB seems much more plausible...
But the GE method may have one thing on its side, and that's cost: where it currently costs around £1 for 3GB of storage on a 25GB Blu-ray, it would cost around 7p per GB on a GE micro-holographic disc. While the cost of producing them would be the same, you'd be getting more gigs for your quid.
Or you could just buy a big hard drive or three and stop worrying about the whole process, as it's not landing for a few more years... like all these high capacity discs.
Via press release and NY Times
