The future is holographic

Nov 22, 2005 10:34 GMT  ·  By

Maxell is bringing a revolutionary technology to market - holographic media. With uncompressed storage capacities reaching 1.6 TB (TeraBytes) per disk and data rates as high as 120 MB/s, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage requirements.

Holographic data storage is superior to existing disc and hard drive technologies, and is also competitive against tape technologies in terms of capacity and transfer rate. In addition, it offers a 50+ year archive life. The media is expected to have the lowest cost per gigabyte of any commercial quality removable storage.

One 5? inch-diameter optical disc can store up to 150 million pages of text - more than 63 times the capacity of a regular DVD. Also, with holographic recording, a multiple of form factors, such as discs and cards will emerge.

Unlike other technologies that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light. This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices.

The first generation holographic media with 300 GB of storage capacity and 20 MB/s transfer rate is scheduled for release in late 2006.