InPhase Technologies demonstrated the highest data density of any commercial technology by recording 515 gigabits of data per square inch using holographic storage techniques. InPhase plans to deliver the industry’s first holographic drive and media later this year. The first generation drive has a capacity of 300 gigabytes on a single disk with a 20 megabyte per second transfer rate. The first product will be followed by a family ranging from 800 GB to 1.6 terabyte (TB) capacity.
InPhase said densities in holography are achieved by different factors than magnetic storage. Density depends on the number of pixels/bits in a page of data; the number of pages that are stored in a particular volumetric location; the dynamic range of the recording material; the thickness of the material, and the wavelength of the recording laser.
In the InPhase demonstration there were over 1.3 million bits per data page, and 320 data pages spaced 0.067 degrees apart were stored in the same volume of material. A collection of data pages is referred to as a book, and InPhase’s PolyTopic recording architecture enables more holograms to be stored in the same volume of material by overlapping not only pages, but also books. Three tracks of overlapping books were written with a track pitch of 700 microns. The InPhase “Tapestry” material was 1.5 millimeters thick, and the laser wavelength was 407 nanometers.
For the home video fan, one disk could hold the equivalent of 106 DVD movies.
http://www.inphase-tech.com
