'5D' storage could hold 2,000 times more than 1 DVD
Last Updated: Friday, May 22, 2009 | 1:39 PM ET
CBC News
Related
Internal Links
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
Researchers in Australia have demonstrated a new storage technology that could potentially allow 10 terabytes to be stored on a DVD-sized disc.
"To put that in perspective, that's the… capacity of 2,000 DVDs," said Richard Evans, a research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, in an online news conference organized by the Australian Media Centre.
Evans, who is also an engineering professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, was discussing the results of a study conducted by three other Swinburne researchers — Peter Zijlstra, James Chon and Min Gu — and published in Thursday's edition of Nature. Evans, who also researches optical data storage, proofread the paper.
The new technology, backed by Samsung Electronics, is expected to be commercially available within five or 10 years, said a news release from the university.
The technique involves storing information in thin layers, as CD, DVD and Blu-Ray discs do, with spots or bits of data written and read by a laser.
Chon said the next steps will be to:
- Test the technology on an actual DVD-sized disc.
- Develop an optical drive that will work with it.
- Try different nanorod materials. For example, he is interested in trying silver nanorods, as they are cheaper than gold and allow the use of shorter light wavelengths, such as blue and violet.
A DVD with a single layer can currently store 4.7 gigabytes (about 5/1000ths of a terabyte), using a laser to read tiny spots of data stored close together. Reducing the size of the data spots and the light beam can increase the disc capacity. That is how Blu-Ray discs can hold five times more than DVDs on a single layer.
However, the capacity of such two-dimensional technologies is ultimately limited by the fact that the laws of physics limit the smallest spot size that it is possible to focus visible light to, Chon said.
Holographic competition
Another method of three-dimensional storage that could potentially boost storage capacities exponentially is holographic storage. GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the General Electric Company, announced in April that it had validated holographic storage technology that could store 500 gigabytes on a DVD-sized disc.
Instead of storing data as individual spots, holography uses a light beam containing data and a second light beam called a "reference beam" to create interference patterns in the storage medium. When the reference beam is shone on the storage medium, those patterns serve as a "mould" that diffracts light in a way that reproduces the original data.
Evans argued that it will be easier to make the 5D storage technology backward compatible with existing Blu-Ray and DVD technology than to make holographic technology backward compatible because holographic technology is so different from CD and DVD technology.
However, GE has said its hardware and formats are so similar to current optical storage technology that the micro-holographic players will enable consumers to play back their CDs and DVDs.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Toronto mayor's brother says he never dealt drugs
- The brother of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has vehemently denied allegations in Saturday's Globe and Mail that he was involved in the illicit drug trade in the 1980s. more »
- Hockey Canada votes to ban bodychecking in peewee hockey
- Hockey Canada's board of directors voted to eliminate bodychecking from peewee-level hockey on Saturday in Charlottetown. more »
- Neil Macdonald: How serious is Obama about curbing the drone surge?
- In a key speech this week, the U.S. president set out a host of supposed new safeguards for America's controversial practice of remote-controlled rough justice. But as Neil Macdonald writes, the underlying rationale for drone use has not fundamentally changed. more »
- Ontario man lost in Australian mountains has survival skills
- The sister of an Ontario man who disappeared in Australia's Snowy Mountains nearly two weeks ago says she remains hopeful he will be found, partly because of his training as a Canadian Forces reservist. more »
Must Watch
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- 1976 Apple computer sells for $668,000
- An auctioneer says one of Apple's first computers — a functioning 1976 model — has been sold for a record $668,000 US. more »
- 3D printers give rise to 'desktop manufacturing'
- Customizable objects from plastic dollhouse furniture to medical prosthetics can now be designed and printed out by almost anyone at the press of a button, and is going to lead to an 'explosion of new stuff,' predicts author Chris Anderson. more »
- Google Street View captures Galapagos Islands
- Few have explored the remote volcanic islands of the Galapagos archipelago, an otherworldly landscape inhabited by the world's largest tortoises and other fantastical creatures that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. more »
- King Richard III buried in 'untidy' grave
- New information has surfaced in the odd tale of the British king buried in a car park. King Richard III's remains, which were discovered August under a parking lot in Leicester, England, were laid to rest in a grave researchers are now saying was "badly prepared" and "untidy." more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Chris Hadfield: The gravity of gravity May. 17, 2013 9:58 AM After five months of being Superman and a media superstar, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is now beginning the challenging task of adapting his mortal body and brain to life back on Earth.
Latest Features
- Toronto mayor's brother says he never dealt drugs
- 3 more suspects arrested in slaying of U.K. soldier
- McDonald's CEO chastised by 9-year-old B.C. girl
- NYPD investigating Amanda Bynes sex assault allegations
- Dog snared on baited hooks near Vancouver's Grouse Grind trail
- Ontario man lost in Australian mountains has survival skills
- Canadian mine giant Barrick fined a record $16.4M in Chile
- Retired police officer killed in Mexico remembered as animal lover
- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies using crack cocaine

