10,000 GB on DVD in 5 Years

While doing the hard disk test last month, we were wondering whatever happened to the sci-fi like holographic storage medium that was supposed to be just around the corner. Now it seems there is a DVD being developed that’s based on nano technology dubbed ultra-DVD that can store 10 TB in a single disk. Currently, Blu-ray disks that hold 50 GB are not even close to the projected capacity of these ultra-DVDs. Scientists working on the project say the DVD could be available to consumers as early as five years from now. It will surely change the way we view and even perceive digital data, and even entertainment. Its outcome could include things such as three dimensional video and some ultra-HD viewing. The scientists working on the project say that nano-structured material can be incorporated on to a disc to increase data capacity without increasing the size of the disk.

Meanwhile, another study is also under way in Australia that is looking at developing five dimensional DVDs. Researchers have already designed a five-dimensional DVD that can store 1.6 TB of data on a standard-size DVD. That is as much as 30 Blu-ray disks! Unlike normal DVDs that have two layers of stacked data these disks have an additional 3 layers — one data and two for reading wavelength and polarization. The layers will be made of thin glass films and will be coated with gold nano rods with three different sizes. To record data on the disk a laser is focused on the nano rods. Each nano rod melts at different wavelengths into spheres. This change of state denotes the change from 1 to 0. The researchers are currently working with Samsung to make the technology commercially viable, but it could take anywhere between five to ten years. The challenge is that since the data is so densely packed, reading it at high speeds will pose a problem. Also, currently a very large and not to mention expensive titanium-sapphire femto-second laser is being used in the study. A cheaper laser will have to be developed.