Holographic Challenge To Blu-ray & HD-DVD

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The first holographic storage systems, capable of storing up to 300 GB on a single disc, will reportedly go on sale towards the end of 2006.

InPhase Technologies and Hitachi are jointly developing this technology, dubbed "Tapestry holographic memory technology", which uses laser light interference to store 300 GB on a single disc.

The forth-coming holographic discs, around 13cm in diameter and a little wider than conventional DVDs, promise to hold over six times the content of Gen-Next DVD formats such as Blu-ray and HD DVD; and they will do so at a higher speed...

InPhase Technologies says that holography enables million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light - making transfer rates considerably higher than those of current optical storage devices.

Higher transfer rates, in turn translate into playback of broadcast-quality HDTV content; of which nearly 26 hours can be stored on a single 300GB disc.

Normal DVDs including Gen-Next formats - Blu-ray and HD-DVD, record data by measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc, and exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram more information onto the surface.

However the holographic storage system uses light from a single laser split into two beams; the signal beam and the reference beam. The hologram is formed at the intersection point of these two beams, in the recording medium. By varying the reference beam angle, wavelength, or media position, several different holograms can be recorded in the same volume of material.

InPhase Technologies maintains that the capacity and data rates of holographic storage are critical to achieving break-through improvements in the broadcasting industry.

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