Maxell, a maker of digital and analog media products for data storage, and InPhase Technologies today announced they were bringing holographic media to market as a new storage medium. The first products based on this technology are scheduled for release in September 2006.
Holographic media, the two companies said, has storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per optical disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs. Holographic recording technology utilizes intersecting signal and reference laser beams to store data in a number of 3D hologram images capable of saving hundreds of data pages in a single location. One 5 1/4 inch-diameter optical disc can store up to 150 million pages – more than 63 times the capacity of DVD.
“Holographic media makes it possible for millions of pages of information and high definition images to be held on one small, relatively inexpensive disc,” said Steven Pofcher, senior marketing manager at Maxell. “Imagine having a person’s entire medical history, complete with MRI images, or storing a broadcast network’s entire HD Library on a single disc. These are both possible with holographic technology, which has such large capacity that approximately a half million 300-page books can be stored on a single disc.”