A new technology for data storage

Aug 23, 2007 14:27 GMT  ·  By

Mempile, an Israeli company that is specialized in technologies related to optical storage and the development of new optical mediums, announced the successful testing of its TeraDisc technology that is capable of storing one terabyte of data on a single and cost effective DVD-like optical medium.

One terabyte of data, 1TB for short, is the equivalent of up to 250 hours of high definition videos and Mempile demonstrated this recording technology to several important Japanese computer hardware manufacturers. According to the company's press release concerning this event, the technology is based on the recording of more than 100 virtual layers on a single DVD-size optical disc. The recording capacity of the new optical storing technology is of at least 500GB, which means it already took the lead in the race to the one terabyte optical media as other solutions, like the blue laser technologies only reached around 200GB.

"From iPODs to Tivo, the amount of digital content that consumers are recording and storing in their homes is increasing like never before. The resulting problem is that the information is stored as "islands" on various devices as well as on home PCs, which often function as a central repository by backing up the content of the devices, with the inherent risk of the hard disk drive crashing," said Avi Huppert, CEO of Mempile. "Mempile's TeraDisc technology will, for the first time, enable consumers to permanently store one TeraByte of data on a single, removable DVD-size disc at a fraction of the price of alternative solutions on the market."

Traditional optical media storage is based on burning a number of tracks on the surface of the recorded disc and on the immediately following layers. Because of interferences and background noises, not even the newest blue laser technologies are able to write too many layers, consequently, the total storage capacity is severely limited. According to the manufacturing company "Mempile's patented non-linear two-photon technology allows for 3D recording of transparent virtual layers on the entire volume of the disc", so more than 100 layers can be written without corrupting the information. This high number of recorded layers leads to storage capabilities of a little less than 300GB for a single optical disc that is less than 1mm thick. By increasing the thickness of the recording medium to the DVD standard it is hoped that the recording and reading of at least 500GB of data will be possible, while future optimizations will allow the presence of 200 layers that can each store around 5GB of data.