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Holographic Discs
While some argue over which format, HD DVD or Blu-ray, will become the industry standard for optical media in the near future, others are busy developing discs with a fundamentally different recording technology. The American company InPhase Technologies, specializing in research into holographic data storage methods, together with its Japanese partner Hitachi Maxell, has announced the completion of work on discs where information is recorded using light interference.
The technology for storing data via holography was first proposed back in 1963, but until recently, its commercial implementation was impossible, as media require not only high capacity but also reliability. Many firms are conducting research in this field, such as the Japanese company Optware; however, to date, the greatest success has been achieved by InPhase, a company founded in December 2000 by Lucent Technologies, which managed to implement the capabilities of holography at a fundamentally new technical level using modern materials.
The new implementation of holographic technology, also known as "holographic memory," allows for recording 300 GB of information on a disc approximately ten times faster than current recording devices for ordinary DVDs—the claimed recording speed reaches 160 Mbps! Theoretically, the technology that InPhase announced back in 2001 makes it possible to record up to 1.6 TB of data on a disc, and the recording speed can be up to 960 Mbps, but so far only the production method for smaller-capacity media and simpler equipment has been refined. According to experts, over 240 hours of television-quality video, more than 18 months of radio broadcasts, up to 1.6 million high-resolution digital photos, or 780 million A4 pages of text can be recorded on one disc, which is comparable to a library consisting of four million volumes.
The discs used for holographic recording are slightly larger in diameter than traditional optical media—their diameter is not 12, but 13.3 cm, or more precisely, 5.25 inches. Additionally, the new discs are slightly thicker than ordinary DVDs. The discs are placed in a protective plastic cartridge—recording and playback are performed without removing the media from these cartridges.
According to InPhase Technologies, the principle of recording on a holographic disc is as follows: the light of a laser beam is split into two streams: a signal stream, which actually transmits the useful information, and a reference stream, which performs service functions. A hologram is formed at the point where these streams intersect within the recording medium.
Data encoding in the signal stream is carried out using a so-called spatial light modulator (SLM), which converts data from binary code consisting of zeros and ones into an optical matrix of bright and dark pixels, resembling a chessboard. Data are grouped into arrays or pages of about a million bits, the exact number of which is determined by the SLM modulator.
At the intersection of the reference and signal streams, a hologram is formed and registered in the photosensitive layer of the medium: chemical reactions occur at the points where the bright pixels of the optical matrix are projected, resulting in the recording of the hologram. By changing the angle of the reference stream, the wavelength, or the position of the medium, many different holograms can be recorded on the same section of the photosensitive material. This "multiplex" recording method has allowed for a significant increase in recording density and, consequently, the potential capacity of the medium. According to the developer, the current recording density using a blue laser with a wavelength of 407 nm is over 250 GB per square inch.
The principle of reading data is also quite simple: the reference beam directed at the medium reflects off the hologram and reconstructs the recorded information, which is projected onto an array of sensors capable of reading data from several holograms in parallel. The secret to high data transfer rates lies in this use of parallel reading.
The main problem facing the developers at InPhase Technologies was finding a suitable material for storing data. Scientists from Bell Labs worked on this material for seven years, and the result of their research was a material with the brand name Tapestry, characterized by high photosensitivity, a wide dynamic range, optical transparency, stability of spatial and thermal characteristics, as well as ease of production. This is the material used by InPhase Technologies, which had branched off from Bell Labs.
A disadvantage of media based on polymer materials is their shrinkage or compaction, which limits the volume of data that can be placed in each cubic centimeter. In Tapestry material, this problem was bypassed as follows: this photopolymer consists of a mixture of two compatible but independently polymerizing chemical components. Discs are formed through the natural polymerization of one of the components, resulting in a molecular lattice that acts as a supporting medium. The other, photosensitive component does not undergo the polymerization stage and dissolves into this lattice, thereby achieving geometric stability during data recording and longevity.
InPhase specialists also developed a special ZeroWave technological process that ensures the production of flat optical media at minimal cost, which will allow these media to be competitive in the mass market.
A number of other problems hindering the commercial use of holographic recording were also solved. In particular, the operating temperature range of the registering layer was expanded, and widely used inexpensive laser heads with red and blue lasers were applied in the recording and reading devices. Mass-produced CCD matrices, which are installed in digital cameras and are characterized by high quality along with an acceptable price, serve as sensor arrays in the new technology. Digital micromirror and ferroelectric modulators used in digital televisions and video projectors act as spatial light modulators (SLM). The guaranteed data storage period on the new media has been increased to 50 years, which is comparable to ordinary CD-RWs, whose claimed longevity ranges from 20 to 100 years depending on the manufacturer.
Representatives of InPhase Technologies cite many advantages of the new technology, stemming from the fact that volumes of data that today can only be stored on numerous hard drives of expensive servers can be kept on a small disc. One application of holographic discs is certainly professional video recording, as these discs allow for recording, editing, storing, and distributing video on the same media.
Holographic technology provides a fundamentally new level of copyright protection for digital content: storing data throughout the entire depth of the registering layer complicates pirate duplication of discs, and holographic "watermarks" can be used to verify the authenticity of a disc containing a movie or computer game.
The first television network to broadcast a video recording from a holographic disc developed by InPhase Technologies was the American company Turner Network Television. On October 21, 2005, engineers from both firms recorded an advertisement for the new technology onto a disc manufactured by Hitachi Maxell. The advertisement was read electronically and transferred to the Turner Network Television server, after which it was broadcast at a strictly scheduled time. Furthermore, the clip remains active and will be broadcast to anyone who requests the program schedule of this cable network. The first public demonstration of holographic discs in Japan took place at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (InterBEE), held from November 16 to 18 in Tokyo.
InPhase Technologies and Hitachi Maxell announced that the new media, as well as recording and playback devices, would appear on the market as early as October 2006. First, write-once discs with a capacity of 300 GB will go on sale; by the end of 2007, the capacity of the media is planned to be increased to 800 GB, and by 2010, to 1.6 TB. At the same time, the entire family will be backward compatible. According to Nelson Diaz, CEO of InPhase Technologies, ensuring full backward compatibility is extremely important for data storage, and this compatibility will also be maintained in rewritable discs, which are expected to be introduced in 2007. The price of the first recorders, according to developer representatives, will range from 12,000 to 15,000 US dollars; however, with increasing sales and production volumes, the drives could quickly become cheaper.
Holographic discs are produced by Hitachi Maxell at a Japanese plant in Tsukuba using components supplied by the German chemical group Bayer. The final price of a write-once disc has not yet been set, but according to representatives of the Japanese firm, it will be around 120 US dollars. While not cheap, storing each gigabyte of data will cost approximately 40 cents; for comparison, on a 200-gigabyte hard drive costing 100 dollars, each gigabyte costs 50 cents. In other words, even at the prototype stage, storing a gigabyte of data on a holographic disc is cheaper than on a modern hard disk—a promising indicator.
How promising are holographic discs, and will they be able to compete with HD DVD and Blu-ray technologies that are already ready for commercial use? Most likely, they will not have to compete with next-generation DVDs, as HD DVD and Blu-ray are the technologies of today, while holography is the technology of tomorrow. Even the quite impressive preliminary prices for holographic recording equipment and media are not so astronomical, especially since mass production will allow them to be significantly reduced. The well-thought-out technology, the use of already existing components in holographic drives, and finally, the outstanding recording density—an order of magnitude higher than that of next-generation DVDs—indicate good prospects for holographic data storage technology.
Info from site http://www.terralab.ru (this gives us an idea of what is being discussed)
Added after 17 hours 52 minutes
Tapestry holographic recording technology - up to 200 GB on one removable disc
The corporate data storage market is growing steadily. The volumes of data used in business operations are also increasing. This data needs backup and storage in a separate location in case of unforeseen losses. Previously, hard disks (for those with fewer means) or tape media (for those with more) were used for backups. But it is quite clear that the era of tape media has passed. Today, the industry requires a new type of medium with a capacity comparable to streamer cartridges and hard disks, but which is fast, reliable, and provides protection against unauthorized access to data.
Perhaps these media could be the new Tapestry holographic discs developed by Inphase Technologies.
We will be able to buy these devices in the near future.
************************************************************
As representatives of Hitachi Maxell note, the first holographic media will begin shipping this year, before Christmas. In an interview with the technical director of Maxell, information was mentioned that 300-GB discs using a holographic recording method would start shipping in November-December of this year.
It was also noted that the company will begin transitioning to the second version in 2008, when 800-GB media developed according to InPhase's original technology should be released. Maxell plans to transition to 1.6-TB media in 2010.
A holographic medium is a bonded sandwich of photopolymer 1.5 mm thick. The diameter of the disc in the cartridge is 130 mm. Initially, the technology is designed for use in archives, as the cost of the media will vary from 120 to 180 dollars. The drive itself costs about 15 thousand dollars. Lower-capacity media will be oriented toward the consumer market segment. The size of 100 and 75-GB media will be approximately equal to a postage stamp. The price for such media has not yet been reported.
Source: Extremetech http://www.extremetech.com/
While some argue over which format, HD DVD or Blu-ray, will become the industry standard for optical media in the near future, others are busy developing discs with a fundamentally different recording technology. The American company InPhase Technologies, specializing in research into holographic data storage methods, together with its Japanese partner Hitachi Maxell, has announced the completion of work on discs where information is recorded using light interference.
The technology for storing data via holography was first proposed back in 1963, but until recently, its commercial implementation was impossible, as media require not only high capacity but also reliability. Many firms are conducting research in this field, such as the Japanese company Optware; however, to date, the greatest success has been achieved by InPhase, a company founded in December 2000 by Lucent Technologies, which managed to implement the capabilities of holography at a fundamentally new technical level using modern materials.
The new implementation of holographic technology, also known as "holographic memory," allows for recording 300 GB of information on a disc approximately ten times faster than current recording devices for ordinary DVDs—the claimed recording speed reaches 160 Mbps! Theoretically, the technology that InPhase announced back in 2001 makes it possible to record up to 1.6 TB of data on a disc, and the recording speed can be up to 960 Mbps, but so far only the production method for smaller-capacity media and simpler equipment has been refined. According to experts, over 240 hours of television-quality video, more than 18 months of radio broadcasts, up to 1.6 million high-resolution digital photos, or 780 million A4 pages of text can be recorded on one disc, which is comparable to a library consisting of four million volumes.
The discs used for holographic recording are slightly larger in diameter than traditional optical media—their diameter is not 12, but 13.3 cm, or more precisely, 5.25 inches. Additionally, the new discs are slightly thicker than ordinary DVDs. The discs are placed in a protective plastic cartridge—recording and playback are performed without removing the media from these cartridges.
According to InPhase Technologies, the principle of recording on a holographic disc is as follows: the light of a laser beam is split into two streams: a signal stream, which actually transmits the useful information, and a reference stream, which performs service functions. A hologram is formed at the point where these streams intersect within the recording medium.
Data encoding in the signal stream is carried out using a so-called spatial light modulator (SLM), which converts data from binary code consisting of zeros and ones into an optical matrix of bright and dark pixels, resembling a chessboard. Data are grouped into arrays or pages of about a million bits, the exact number of which is determined by the SLM modulator.
At the intersection of the reference and signal streams, a hologram is formed and registered in the photosensitive layer of the medium: chemical reactions occur at the points where the bright pixels of the optical matrix are projected, resulting in the recording of the hologram. By changing the angle of the reference stream, the wavelength, or the position of the medium, many different holograms can be recorded on the same section of the photosensitive material. This "multiplex" recording method has allowed for a significant increase in recording density and, consequently, the potential capacity of the medium. According to the developer, the current recording density using a blue laser with a wavelength of 407 nm is over 250 GB per square inch.
The principle of reading data is also quite simple: the reference beam directed at the medium reflects off the hologram and reconstructs the recorded information, which is projected onto an array of sensors capable of reading data from several holograms in parallel. The secret to high data transfer rates lies in this use of parallel reading.
The main problem facing the developers at InPhase Technologies was finding a suitable material for storing data. Scientists from Bell Labs worked on this material for seven years, and the result of their research was a material with the brand name Tapestry, characterized by high photosensitivity, a wide dynamic range, optical transparency, stability of spatial and thermal characteristics, as well as ease of production. This is the material used by InPhase Technologies, which had branched off from Bell Labs.
A disadvantage of media based on polymer materials is their shrinkage or compaction, which limits the volume of data that can be placed in each cubic centimeter. In Tapestry material, this problem was bypassed as follows: this photopolymer consists of a mixture of two compatible but independently polymerizing chemical components. Discs are formed through the natural polymerization of one of the components, resulting in a molecular lattice that acts as a supporting medium. The other, photosensitive component does not undergo the polymerization stage and dissolves into this lattice, thereby achieving geometric stability during data recording and longevity.
InPhase specialists also developed a special ZeroWave technological process that ensures the production of flat optical media at minimal cost, which will allow these media to be competitive in the mass market.
A number of other problems hindering the commercial use of holographic recording were also solved. In particular, the operating temperature range of the registering layer was expanded, and widely used inexpensive laser heads with red and blue lasers were applied in the recording and reading devices. Mass-produced CCD matrices, which are installed in digital cameras and are characterized by high quality along with an acceptable price, serve as sensor arrays in the new technology. Digital micromirror and ferroelectric modulators used in digital televisions and video projectors act as spatial light modulators (SLM). The guaranteed data storage period on the new media has been increased to 50 years, which is comparable to ordinary CD-RWs, whose claimed longevity ranges from 20 to 100 years depending on the manufacturer.
Representatives of InPhase Technologies cite many advantages of the new technology, stemming from the fact that volumes of data that today can only be stored on numerous hard drives of expensive servers can be kept on a small disc. One application of holographic discs is certainly professional video recording, as these discs allow for recording, editing, storing, and distributing video on the same media.
Holographic technology provides a fundamentally new level of copyright protection for digital content: storing data throughout the entire depth of the registering layer complicates pirate duplication of discs, and holographic "watermarks" can be used to verify the authenticity of a disc containing a movie or computer game.
The first television network to broadcast a video recording from a holographic disc developed by InPhase Technologies was the American company Turner Network Television. On October 21, 2005, engineers from both firms recorded an advertisement for the new technology onto a disc manufactured by Hitachi Maxell. The advertisement was read electronically and transferred to the Turner Network Television server, after which it was broadcast at a strictly scheduled time. Furthermore, the clip remains active and will be broadcast to anyone who requests the program schedule of this cable network. The first public demonstration of holographic discs in Japan took place at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (InterBEE), held from November 16 to 18 in Tokyo.
InPhase Technologies and Hitachi Maxell announced that the new media, as well as recording and playback devices, would appear on the market as early as October 2006. First, write-once discs with a capacity of 300 GB will go on sale; by the end of 2007, the capacity of the media is planned to be increased to 800 GB, and by 2010, to 1.6 TB. At the same time, the entire family will be backward compatible. According to Nelson Diaz, CEO of InPhase Technologies, ensuring full backward compatibility is extremely important for data storage, and this compatibility will also be maintained in rewritable discs, which are expected to be introduced in 2007. The price of the first recorders, according to developer representatives, will range from 12,000 to 15,000 US dollars; however, with increasing sales and production volumes, the drives could quickly become cheaper.
Holographic discs are produced by Hitachi Maxell at a Japanese plant in Tsukuba using components supplied by the German chemical group Bayer. The final price of a write-once disc has not yet been set, but according to representatives of the Japanese firm, it will be around 120 US dollars. While not cheap, storing each gigabyte of data will cost approximately 40 cents; for comparison, on a 200-gigabyte hard drive costing 100 dollars, each gigabyte costs 50 cents. In other words, even at the prototype stage, storing a gigabyte of data on a holographic disc is cheaper than on a modern hard disk—a promising indicator.
How promising are holographic discs, and will they be able to compete with HD DVD and Blu-ray technologies that are already ready for commercial use? Most likely, they will not have to compete with next-generation DVDs, as HD DVD and Blu-ray are the technologies of today, while holography is the technology of tomorrow. Even the quite impressive preliminary prices for holographic recording equipment and media are not so astronomical, especially since mass production will allow them to be significantly reduced. The well-thought-out technology, the use of already existing components in holographic drives, and finally, the outstanding recording density—an order of magnitude higher than that of next-generation DVDs—indicate good prospects for holographic data storage technology.
Info from site http://www.terralab.ru (this gives us an idea of what is being discussed)
Added after 17 hours 52 minutes
Tapestry holographic recording technology - up to 200 GB on one removable disc
The corporate data storage market is growing steadily. The volumes of data used in business operations are also increasing. This data needs backup and storage in a separate location in case of unforeseen losses. Previously, hard disks (for those with fewer means) or tape media (for those with more) were used for backups. But it is quite clear that the era of tape media has passed. Today, the industry requires a new type of medium with a capacity comparable to streamer cartridges and hard disks, but which is fast, reliable, and provides protection against unauthorized access to data.
Perhaps these media could be the new Tapestry holographic discs developed by Inphase Technologies.
We will be able to buy these devices in the near future.
************************************************************
As representatives of Hitachi Maxell note, the first holographic media will begin shipping this year, before Christmas. In an interview with the technical director of Maxell, information was mentioned that 300-GB discs using a holographic recording method would start shipping in November-December of this year.
It was also noted that the company will begin transitioning to the second version in 2008, when 800-GB media developed according to InPhase's original technology should be released. Maxell plans to transition to 1.6-TB media in 2010.
A holographic medium is a bonded sandwich of photopolymer 1.5 mm thick. The diameter of the disc in the cartridge is 130 mm. Initially, the technology is designed for use in archives, as the cost of the media will vary from 120 to 180 dollars. The drive itself costs about 15 thousand dollars. Lower-capacity media will be oriented toward the consumer market segment. The size of 100 and 75-GB media will be approximately equal to a postage stamp. The price for such media has not yet been reported.
Source: Extremetech http://www.extremetech.com/
Евангелие от Иоанна, 1.5: Lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt. Свет во тьме светит, и тьма не объяла его.
