10 TB DVD's around the corner?

[RADA]

Some whiz-kid blokes from Swinburne University in Australia have developed "Five-Dimensional" DVDs (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090520192137.htm) with a storage potential 2,000 greater than current disks. Nanopaticles and "polarization" method allow for massive increases in storage potential, while still maintaining the standard disk size.

Teaming up with Samsung, researchers have already used this technique to create a 1.6 TB DVD, with future disks holding 10 terabytes.

Our current crop of DVDs operate in three dimensions, the two extra dimensions of a five dimensional DVD are created by adding a color dimension, and a polarization dimension.

Gold nanoparticles are used to create the color dimension. Since the size of the particles dictate how they react to light, researchers use this record data at different color wavelengths in the same place on a disk.

Disk polarization can be adjusted 360 degrees. Data can be recorded at Zero degrees, with the ability to record more data at 90 degrees of polarization with no interference.

[Thrax]

See you in 2019.

[pragtastic]

You have to wonder just how long physical disc media like that will really last. Other than backups, why in the hell would I need a 10tb disc? You'd think that soon enough pretty much everything will be stored and transferred via networks so physical disc media really won't be necessary anymore.

[Thrax]

Check out the space requirements of NHK's 4k video technology.

[RADA]

You have to wonder just how long physical disc media like that will really last. Other than backups, why in the hell would I need a 10tb disc? You'd think that soon enough pretty much everything will be stored and transferred via networks so physical disc media really won't be necessary anymore.

Not sure I agree with the "no need for physical media" theory.

Case in point: How often over the last 15 years have you heard the phrase "paperless business/office"? During my time in the Air Force I head this ad naseum for the 8 years I was on active duty. Well, I've been off active duty longer than I was in, and I can say the Air Force is still far from "paperless". I think physical media will follow this same path.

Even if everything is on a home network, you will still want a backup somewhere. Humans are tactile, hoarding, take-ownership, creatures. In the future physical media might not be necessary, but I think it will still be readily available.

[Thrax]

You should write an article describing why the physical disc isn't dead. Go.

[pragtastic]

I personally have almost no need for physical disc media on a daily or even monthly basis that I can think of. All my music is stored and transported over networks or on hand held devices (iPhone). Most of my gaming comes from sources who distribute via the net (WoW, Steam). I watch movies and tv series via Netflix Instant Watch.

The only thing I can think of that I would need a physical disc for these days is either A. OS Install or B. A Game that I couldn't get streamed to me.

We're trending towards an environment where all things are networked. Once networks can support all our transmission needs for whatever high-def standards we might have, then I really don't see much of a need for physical disc media any more.

[Thrax]

The current trend in ISP politicking almost guarantees that the networks will never be able to support or encourage streaming.

[RADA]

..... All my music is stored and transported over networks or on hand held devices (iPhone)...

Playing the Devil's Advocate, I would call your iPhone a type of physical media.

Getting off the paradigm current of "Physical Media", how expensive is a 1, or 1.5 TB internal or external Hard Drive, compared to a read/write DVD disk? With a 5 TB R/W/RW DVD of the future, your PC may not need a hard drive at all. The OS, Apps, Games, Docs could all be stored on a disk you take with you. "Your PC" could be any computer with the proper disk drive... With a couple backup copies, you'd never have to worry about a HDD crash..

Just a thought.

[RADA]

You should write an article describing why the physical disc isn't dead. Go.

Three day weekend... think I can do.... :)

[kryyst]

I think the bigger question will be that while it's all well and good to be able to store 10tb on an optical disc. I seriously worry about the read/write times for that medium and the longevity of it. The more you have there the thinner the organic layers get and the more susceptible they are to decomposition.

[pragtastic]

Playing the Devil's Advocate, I would call your iPhone a type of physical media.

Just a thought.

I was referencing physical disc media.

[fmueller]

I worked in a chemistry research group in 1995, and we used to backup NMR spectra on DAT tape, which was a PITA. Nobody ever wanted to clean stuff off the HD, although my boss told us how spoiled we all were - he had grown up storing and retrieving data from punched paper tape. One day he had enough of it all and bought a 1GB HD. Those were the days when a kB was big, a MB was huge, and few people had ever heard about a 'gigabite'. The 1GB HD cost a small fortune, and he proudly announced that he had solved the group's storage needs 'forever' - we'd never have to worry about cleaning stuff off that HD again, because it was so huge, it would last us for decades! Half a year later he had to buy two more 1GB HDs...

If you could make 10TB DVDs you wouldn't have sleepless nights worrying what to put one there - people would come flocking to you and ask you to be allowed to use your discs! Sure, if you mostly consume stuff - listening to music, watching movies, etc - you don't need much storage capacity. It's more convenient to get the stuff delivered via a network right when you need it.

But how about when you are producing stuff - photos, videos, even music, or scientific data. No end is in sight yet in the race for digital cameras to produce more megapixels with each shot. Plus more and more people shoot RAW format, leading to uncompressed data and huge files. Plus more and more cameras record high quality video footage. That creates massive storage needs even for the average consumer. I'd buy some 10TB DVDs in hardbeat to put photos on!

[RADA]

I had a similar experience in the U.S. Air Force.

Our office got two new Dell PCs (circa late 1994) with 1GB internal HDs.

We all stood around them, exclaiming/agreeing "we'll never use all this space"...

.. We ordered a half dozen more just over a year later. And we astounded by the 3.0 GB drives they all had...




I worked in a chemistry research group in 1995, and we used to backup NMR spectra on DAT tape, which was a PITA. Nobody ever wanted to clean stuff off the HD, although my boss told us how spoiled we all were - he had grown up storing and retrieving data from punched paper tape. One day he had enough of it all and bought a 1GB HD. Those were the days when a kB was big, a MB was huge, and few people had ever heard about a 'gigabite'. The 1GB HD cost a small fortune, and he proudly announced that he had solved the group's storage needs 'forever' - we'd never have to worry about cleaning stuff off that HD again, because it was so huge, it would last us for decades! Half a year later he had to buy two more 1GB HDs...

If you could make 10TB DVDs you wouldn't have sleepless nights worrying what to put one there - people would come flocking to you and ask you to be allowed to use your discs! Sure, if you mostly consume stuff - listening to music, watching movies, etc - you don't need much storage capacity. It's more convenient to get the stuff delivered via a network right when you need it.

But how about when you are producing stuff - photos, videos, even music, or scientific data. No end is in sight yet in the race for digital cameras to produce more megapixels with each shot. Plus more and more people shoot RAW format, leading to uncompressed data and huge files. Plus more and more cameras record high quality video footage. That creates massive storage needs even for the average consumer. I'd buy some 10TB DVDs in hardbeat to put photos on!