Holographic storage offering capacities at least 20 times greater than today's DVDs could be available within two years, developers say. A prototype drive called Tapestry, storing 100GB on a CD-size disc was demonstrated last month by Inphase Technologies , a company formed in 2000 to exploit developments at Lucent's Bell Laboratories. A major shareholder is storage media giant Imation.
Inphase has developed a new type of photo-polymer for the recording layer and is claiming transfer rates of 20Mbytes/sec. The technology depends on low-cost robust red and blue lasers developed for DVD and Blu-Ray recorders. The product will be targeted at the professional market, with drives costing up to $10,000 (approx £7,000 - about the same as early DVD recorders) and 100GB discs at $50 (£35) each. Disc capacities will eventually go into the terabytes, the company says.
Inphase strategic marketing director Chris Pfaff said: A 'prosumer/consumer device' could appear within three to four years and that the technology will surpass Blu-Ray, itself seen as the next-generation DVD.
Meanwhile a Cambridge company called Polight says it is on schedule to produce 500GB holographic discs by 2004 using a special glass called Holonide which it says has advantages over the Inphase polymer.
Chief executive Michael Ledzion explained: 'Polymers tend to shrink under the influence of a laser. This can cause problems if you are storing a lot of data in the same volume (a feature of holographic storage - see link below) because your second write pulse can distort the image of the first. This does not happen with Holonides.'
Holographic drives are harder to make than DVD drives because of the need to vary the angle or wavelength of the laser to gain maximum storage capacities. But Polight is not in the business of making drives. Instead, said Ledzion, it designs media to a 'generic specification' around which manufacturers can build drives. And initially they will use cheaper green pulse lasers. Drives will be targeted at the corporate archive market.
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