Could Blue Ray and HD DVD already be obsolete technology? That is the proposed claim in a recent article in Game Daily Biz. It gives an interesting overview of new holographic storage solutions coming from at least two companies that suggests that this new storage medium is faster, has more capacity and could eventually be cheaper for the customer.
The concept of holographic storage has been around for decades and in fact, I saw great examples of this in Japan over 10 years ago while visiting one of the big storage players in Tokyo. And here in the US, IBM and others have had holographic storage research in the works for many years and they too have looked to holographic recording as the future of high density storage. Check out the details below:

From Game Daily Biz, Nov 28, 2005

Blu-ray/HD DVD Could Become Irrelevant as HVD Nears

When it comes to the format war, all the talk has been about Blu-ray and HD DVD, but another more advanced technology could actually replace both before they even really have a chance to make their respective marks. Holographic disks can store a ton of data and can read and write data faster as well...

While the Sony-led Blu-ray camp and the Toshiba-led HD DVD group battle it out to determine which format will become the successor to traditional DVD, another format is being developed that could quickly make both HD DVD and Blu-ray seem obsolete.

Incredible storage capacity
Called Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD), this emerging technology has been in the works (at least conceptually) for about 20 years. It wasn't until the beginning of the 21st century that real advances were made, however. Holographic disk storage allows for much higher density than DVDs by storing data as light patterns throughout the volume of the polymer disc, or three dimensions. HVD can apparently store up to 60 times the data of a regular DVD and it can read and write data 10 times faster as well.

The two major players in this emerging holographic storage field are InPhase Technologies (an American company) and Japanese firm Optware Corp. Optware recently opened a U.S. branch and intends to launch 200GB HVD drives by the end of 2006; by 2008, the company is aiming to hit the 1TB mark. InPhase also plans on shipping its own 200GB drives by the end of next year. The company has partnered with Hitachi Maxell Ltd. to market the new technology.


[ "With Blu-ray and HD DVD not even on the market yet... it's certainly possible that the real format leap won't truly come until holographic technology is ushered in." ]


According to InPhase, its Tapestry holographic system can store more than 26 hours of broadcast-quality high-definition video on a single 300GB disk, recorded at a 160 megabit per second (Mb/s) data rate. HVD also can hold data for over 50 years without any sign of deterioration, which when combined with its massive capacity makes it an ideal solution for television networks to store all their video.

For balance of the article, go to:

http://biz.gamedaily.com=