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3D optical storage provides huge capacity

15 November 2002 13:20 by Jari Ketola | 10 comments

There has been alot of discussion and speculation on the future of both magnetic and optical storage media in the recent years. Researchers are continuosly looking for new ways to store more data in smaller space. One of the most promising concepts has been so called 3D optical storage. Dual layer DVDs are sort of a 3D storage medium already - you can access two different data from one point on the disc by adjusting the focus of the laser beam. Imagine how much more data you could store, if you could had, say, 20 layers on one DVD.

Researchers at Boston College's Eugene F. Merkert Chemistry Center have done just that. They have developed a material on which they have been able to write several layers of data by modifying the intensity of the laser beam used for reading and writing. Using this method they have managed to create a CD-sized disk capable of storing 87 gigabytes of data - that's nineteen times more than a regular DVD-R holds (4.7GB).

"This all began when we were trying to do something completely different with the materials," said John Fourkas, a chemistry professor who led the research at Boston College's Eugene F. Merkert Chemistry Center. "It was by accident."

Commercial solutions, however, are nowhere in sight - atleasf for now. The researchers haven't been able to even figure out why the material works as it does. Also the mass production of these discs is impossible, since each disc has to be recorded individually - they cannot be manufactured like CDs or DVDs.

Nevertheless this kind of research is essential for future development of all kinds of storage media.

Sources:
Detnews.com
CDFreaks.com

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Ghostdog (Senior Member) 16 November 2002 6:28
How come each disc has to be written individually? And what was the used material? BTW, anyone heard of "Millipede". That is something to look forward to. [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 16 November 2002 18:43
lol fair play to em. 87 gigs. Thats unbelievable Did any info help you. If so, thank the afterdawn staff!! If this website wasnt around we would all be still roaming for answers. There is some software you can get for free that will support this site or drop a donation if possible! [ + quote]
motherfok (Newbie) 18 November 2002 11:24
Sounds great to me! I would just like to be able to do that for my own storage. If they could make the method available for individual users it would be great. [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 18 November 2002 15:20
What was that i read at shortnews.com before about people using atoms or something to store data instead of ones and zeros and noticed they could make cd's 1,000,000 denser, or something like that anyway. I could have been dreaming too but im almost certain i read something like that before! Did any info help you. If so, thank the afterdawn staff!! If this website wasnt around we would all be still roaming for answers. There is some software you can get for free that will support this site or drop a donation if possible! [ + quote]
bang (Junior Member) 5 December 2002 20:46
Think about it! How many problems are there with burning DVD's? Lots! There are still problems with burning CDs? Yes! With this high tech storage, you probably won't care about it by the time it is made reliable. [ + quote]
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 6 December 2002 4:07
Problems with burning CDs? I have a Lite-On 24x burner and have burned a few packs without any problems. Thank god for Burn-proof. [ + quote]
fedrive (Inactive) 3 February 2003 13:22
For those interested in 3D Storage goto, . http://www.colossalstorage.net [ + quote]
plazma247 (Junior Member) 5 October 2007 14:00
Ummm 3d Storage, droolls a little. [ + quote]
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 13 October 2007 9:15
I'm pretty curious as to how you stumbled across this one. My last post is from 5 years ago : ) [ + quote]
plazma247 (Junior Member) 13 October 2007 9:19
lol.... i was just doing some diging to see how far it had come since i last looked.... not far.. :( Thats the 3d storage not your post obviously.... as for the curiosity you know what happened to the cat ;) [ + quote]