The entire contents of your server on one optical disk? That's the goal of the Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) Alliance.
Six companies, including Fuji Photo and CMC Magnetics, have formed a consortium to promote HVD technology, which will let consumers conceivably put a terabyte (1TB) of data onto a single optical disc.
A TB-size disc would certainly compress movie collections. The consortium said an HVD disc could hold as much data as 200 standard DVDs and transfer data at over 1 gigabit per second, or 40 times faster than a DVD.
HVD is a possible successor to technologies such as Blu-ray and HD DVD. Single layer Blu-ray discs hold about 25GB of data while dual-layer discs hold 50GB. Ordinary DVD discs, meanwhile, hold about 4.7GB. HVD technology will be pitched at corporations and the entertainment market, the HVD Alliance said.
The technology behind HVD is based on holography technology from Japan's Optware, one of the six founders of the consortium. A technical committee formed last December to flesh out HVD standards.
Sony unveiled a home server with 1TB of storage for the Japanese market last year. Half of the capacity would be enough to record six channels of TV for five and a half days non-stop, Sony said.
The organisation, however, is looking at first developing discs with lower capacities. The first assignments of the technical committee involve coming up with standards for a 200GB recordable disc and a 100GB read-only disc.
If history is an indication, businesses will fill the disc up. Compliance legislation, among other things, is leading to increased data retention and massive bills for storage, which could be alleviated by larger optical disks of this nature.
Michiko Nagai of CNET Japan contributed to this story from Tokyo.
Talkback
I think this kind of forcasting can leave people a little synacle, when DVD came out I didn't know what would be next. Yet Blue Ray is not even pronounced winner and people are talking about a successor. Knowing what's next now, will I just wait for HVD storage?
Now it seems consortiums are pushing for technology and not single companies, this makes the thechnology much more likely to prevail.
The key thing here is speed, I was always concerend over this, I might get the capacity but how long will it take to burn to a 200GB Blue Ray Disc?
Thankfully the 1GBps touted will reasure me. Its a bit like the Megahertz mith, speed of write and read are increasing factors as the size goes up.
But is removable storage what people really want? what about the convinience of an instantly accessable HD, do I want 1TB of data stand alone? I'd much prefer it instantly accessable and searchable, so will HD get the 3D Holographic treatment?
This kind of spelling leaves users a little cynical! Interesting, but not relevant to todays purchasers. It will clearly be some time before the technology is stable enough and cheap enough.
Move over DVD, Blu-Ray, and HVD !!
HERE comes Atomic Holographic Optical Nanostorage
http://colossalstorage.net