{KOW}Spazed
09-03-2005, 22:27
DVD's new nemesis, the HVD
As if Blu-ray and HD-DVD hasn't caused enough confusion, the Japanese firm Optware has a new optical disc in the works that leaves Blu-ray and HD in the dust when it comes to capacity and performance, not to mention price.
Before you plan on replacing your DVD collection, know this: Optware doesn't expect to have HVD on the market for consumers until 2007 at the earliest, with players selling for under $3,000. You'll get your money's worth, though. The discs will hold between 100GB and up to one terabyte of data on a standard five-inch disc (the same size as a DVD) and support a data rate of up to one gigabit per second.
How does it work? Well, standard optical discs store data in a linear string of dots, each dot containing 1 bit of information, read by a laser beam. Optware's technology splits the signal laser beam into 1 million narrower beams to create data pages. This writes data in three dimensions, allowing for one million bits of information can be stored in each dot.
Optware's holographic recording technology stores data on discs in the form of laser interference fringes. Optware uses a holographic technology that combines multiple lasers needed to create a three-dimensional hologram into a single laser beam. The company also has a new servo system that allows for a smaller pickup size, allowing for compatibility with DVD and CD discs.
HVD reads and writes data at over 10kb with a single flash of the laser, and it can read and write in parallel, something optical discs can't do. Also, HVD discs don't need to spin like DVD discs, since the laser moves, rather than being held in place and having the disc spin under it.
This will allow for data cards, something Optware plans to do. Instead of limiting the format to a round disc, it can be stored on a card and the laser reads over the data layer. For this reason, HVD is seen as a storage system for a lot more than just holding movies. One credit card-sized card can hold gigabytes of personal information.
Because the disc doesn't need to spin, this will allow for tremendous read speeds. To increase the read speed in a ROM drive, CD or DVD, the disc must be spun faster. CD-ROM speed is limited by the fact that the disks would literally tear apart spinning at very high speeds. CD-ROM drives maxed out at 52x speed because if it spun the disc any faster it might shred.
The company InPhase Technologies has began shipping a recordable holographic drive based on WORM (Write Once Read Many) technology and using a blue laser. The drives can hold from 200GB now to a projected 1.6TB by 2010. However, it's being sold to firms that need massive storage requirements and through computer vendors. If InPhase has any consumer ambitions, it hasn't announced them yet.
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So many things you could do, the storage could be so small. Thumb drives will be dinosaurs.
In short, I want one now.
As if Blu-ray and HD-DVD hasn't caused enough confusion, the Japanese firm Optware has a new optical disc in the works that leaves Blu-ray and HD in the dust when it comes to capacity and performance, not to mention price.
Before you plan on replacing your DVD collection, know this: Optware doesn't expect to have HVD on the market for consumers until 2007 at the earliest, with players selling for under $3,000. You'll get your money's worth, though. The discs will hold between 100GB and up to one terabyte of data on a standard five-inch disc (the same size as a DVD) and support a data rate of up to one gigabit per second.
How does it work? Well, standard optical discs store data in a linear string of dots, each dot containing 1 bit of information, read by a laser beam. Optware's technology splits the signal laser beam into 1 million narrower beams to create data pages. This writes data in three dimensions, allowing for one million bits of information can be stored in each dot.
Optware's holographic recording technology stores data on discs in the form of laser interference fringes. Optware uses a holographic technology that combines multiple lasers needed to create a three-dimensional hologram into a single laser beam. The company also has a new servo system that allows for a smaller pickup size, allowing for compatibility with DVD and CD discs.
HVD reads and writes data at over 10kb with a single flash of the laser, and it can read and write in parallel, something optical discs can't do. Also, HVD discs don't need to spin like DVD discs, since the laser moves, rather than being held in place and having the disc spin under it.
This will allow for data cards, something Optware plans to do. Instead of limiting the format to a round disc, it can be stored on a card and the laser reads over the data layer. For this reason, HVD is seen as a storage system for a lot more than just holding movies. One credit card-sized card can hold gigabytes of personal information.
Because the disc doesn't need to spin, this will allow for tremendous read speeds. To increase the read speed in a ROM drive, CD or DVD, the disc must be spun faster. CD-ROM speed is limited by the fact that the disks would literally tear apart spinning at very high speeds. CD-ROM drives maxed out at 52x speed because if it spun the disc any faster it might shred.
The company InPhase Technologies has began shipping a recordable holographic drive based on WORM (Write Once Read Many) technology and using a blue laser. The drives can hold from 200GB now to a projected 1.6TB by 2010. However, it's being sold to firms that need massive storage requirements and through computer vendors. If InPhase has any consumer ambitions, it hasn't announced them yet.
--------
So many things you could do, the storage could be so small. Thumb drives will be dinosaurs.
In short, I want one now.