With all the talk going around with new breakthroughs in optical technology including the news* from down under (Swinburne University of Technology in Australia) about 5D storage which is reported to hold 10 Terabytes, which is about 2,381 single layer DVD recordable or 280 dual sided DVD+R discs. It turns out it's those little nano-particles everyone has been talking about recently.
This should be a huge breakthrough that will get all the pesky tape back-up and hard drives out of the picture permanently?
Thus my point: Data storage size and cost per GB (or Terabyte) does not matter any more. We certainly know that the application for storage is significant (optical for archive, tape for capacity) but time and time again in both business storage and consumer based buying habits the 'value' is far beyond the 'storage capacity'. This is is the the dilemma facing Blu-ray right now. The perception of value placed on different formats was really blown away with the Apple iPod. Distribution (and convenience) over storage function. Really the game changer is the architecture of distribution and retention vs. per storage capability.
This makes sense as most of us do not walk around with data storage appliances strapped to our backs for maximum storage: we choose the most convenient package for our needs. The brilliance of the iPod is it took relatively small storage, a compression audio format that reduces the size 20x or more (MP3) , a network for distribution (iStore) and a Digital management console iTunes and created a sensation based around more, not better.
Now we hard core iPod fans would be offended by "not better" right? It effectively solves the users problem with discs or other types of storage like analog audio tape (we used to call them cassette tapes ;) ) in portability and transport. Although I listened to one person on the radio discussing the days of the "boom box" and the social buzz around one at the time. Now no one gathers around the box listening to the jams: it's all on-line.
With USB flash storing up to 64GB (or more) it certainly seems a winner in the portable world but what is USB flash? It's a connector (USB) which interfaces with a computer or other storage device. USB is not the technology that makes non-volatile or " flash" memory the game-changer (and the ability to erase in small sectors). It's all about the connection, the interface cable.
Consider the fact that Micro SD is a strong contender for replacing the optical disc. Consider how it interfaces with computers. It's focus is at cell phones, "smart phones" which don't easily and conveniently interface with USB without an adapter.
I wonder what can be done with nano-particles and flash non-volatile memory. That is use electricity to change the structure of the particles instead of laser light. How will that interface? will the 'drive' become obsolete?
Solid state memory does not spin and the media and "drive" are combined.
All it has to do is plug in to the device. Or a real Apple 'Nano' = nano-particles as in a couple of Terabytes of song and video storage.
*If you want to read the original news source for the new 5 dimensional storage Reuters
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Archive media, what does that mean?
Will I be around for 300 years?
It's an excellent question and more complicated then just the survival of the optical disc (or me ;) ). Not only does a disc have to survive 300 years but the drive and operating system (OS) that could read the data. So archiving your data, be it pictures or documents, spreadsheets or your audio collection requires careful consideration.
There are two distinctively different coatings for the reflective layer on CD-R and DVD-R & DVD+R blank media. Silver and Gold. These are not colors but actual metals in silver and gold. Each has unique characteristics that effect the playback of the media. Silver has the highest reflectivity and tends to be less problematic in older drives. Gold coatings have slightly less reflectivity and can be difficult to playback in some players.
The reflective layer is how the laser reads the disc. As the laser light beams onto the surface of the CD or DVD it needs to reflect back at the pick-up which shows the variation of pits (or spots) on the disc. This is how your data is 'read'. With recordable discs the pits are created by laser light that causes a change in the recordable dye. If the the reflective layer appears to be similar to the pit then the disc reader skips over the data causing an error in playback. Generally a silver reflective layer is the best surface to go with. However with archival type media the issue becomes oxidation. Silver oxidizes, gold does not.
Oxidation happens when air chemically reacts with the metal. So the silver surface that had the high reflective properties becomes far less reflective then the gold. To the point of being unreadable. Now the question of 300 years does not mean it takes 300 years for this to happen. It actually happens much faster. Depending on the manufacture of the disc and type of disc. CD-R and BD-R use a single layer of polycarbonate. DVD uses a sandwich with the dye and reflective layer in the center. Interestingly enough the DVD has the shortest life span because air can get into the sandwich fairly easily. It's essentially "glued" together and any imperfections can allow air to get in (both the inner hub and outer disc area present an issue). Also air can slowly penetrate the polycarbonate at a higher rate then the disc coatings which are far more 'dense'.
How fast can this happen? days, weeks, months. Several years. Far shorter then 300 years. So if you have important data you want to preserver then Gold surface media is the way to go. The premium manufacturers of Gold archival media is MAM-A and FTI (Falcon). MAM-A offers a wide range of gold surfaces in DVD and CD-R. Currently Falcon offers a product line in CD-R with the gold surface.
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It is interesting to note that Digitimes had an article on Thursday, August 7, 2008 about the Optical Recordable Disc manufacturer, Prodisc, with CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and Dual Layer production lines in Taiwan and mainland China, clarifying it's position about the "rumors" that they were discontinuing optical disc product.
company chairman Ming-fa Lin:
""..Prodisc has invested more than NT$10 billion (about US$300 million) in production equipment of blank CD-R, DVD+/-R discs and has maintained a steady client base consisting of international vendors and overseas retail channels, the reason for not quitting production, Lin explained. Prodisc is negotiating with lending banks to seek their support for the company's planned turnaround and continuing production of optical discs.."
As reported by Digitimes IT news
This is after a report a day before in cens.com that Prodisc would be exiting the Optical business.
Essentially Prodisc is without capital and has plenty of troubles with Philips. It certainly would not be in Philips interest for Prodisc to exit the business although the issue is really with recordable CD production which is not as large a market as DVD which is not under the Philips royalty. The real issue is with the razor thin gross profits that translate into a loss every year and yet CMC, Ritek and Prodisc keep slugging it out. It's hard to imagine how Prodisc can continue but then it's hard to see how any of the Taiwan Optical manufacturers can continue. They continue to drop the cost of blank discs even though the manufacturing costs keep going up leaving no profit at all. They all are scrambling to shift over to other storage products like USB flash and flash cards. Prodisc has been working on a film production project producing brightness enhancement film (BEF) as well as LED lamps and aspherical polycarbonate ophthalmic lenses with a Japanese company, Omron.
These are the major manufacturers of inexpensive recordable CD-R, recordable DVD, and at least for CMC and Ritek: Blu-ray recordable manufacturing. They have driven the market hard in OEM and branded media making it a very non-economical operation. I'm certainly amazed that Prodisc would invest 300 million dollars for production equipment expecting a return on the investment.
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CD Dimensions is offering free sample packs of the thermal and inkjet printable CD-R and DVD-R Falcon Media, made by FTI
Free Sample Offer
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