TeraDisc Meets Consumer Demand for High Volume Storage
Optical storage innoveator Mempile is addressing tomorrow's archival storage needs with its TeraDisc technology capable of currently storing one Terabyte (TB) of data on a single DVD-sized optical disc and with a roadmap of up to 5TB.
"The current crop of blue-laser media is being pushed to its limits and will not be able to support the archival storage demands consumers will expect in the very near future," said Dr. Beth Erez, Executive Vice President of Mempile. "The industry needs to focus on developing or embracing new technologies that can scale to meet tomorrow's demand -- such as Mempile's TeraDisc."
Existing optical media, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, record data through light-reflective, semi-transparent layers. However, the capacity of this format is limited to around eight layers of recordable material (approximately 200 GB) because as light passes through these layers it becomes diminished and distorted by the reflections of other layers, making accurate data reading and recording impossible.
Mempile's two-photon technology overcomes this basic limitation by enabling a TeraDisc to remain completely transparent -- both before and after recording. This allows the laser to remain in focus even when reading and writing through previously recorded layers. Thus, a single TeraDisc can record and read 200 virtual layers five microns apart using a red laser, each capable of storing approximately 5 GB of data which may be accessed randomly yielding 1 TB.
TeraDiscs are made from an inexpensive monolithic plastic similar to Plexiglas, and its drive components are comparable to today's optical drives. "As a result the TeraDisc afford consumers a low cost, high capacity archival storage solution, with plug and play functionality and a data lifetime of more than 50 years," Mempile said.
In early 2007, Mempile held a live technology demonstration for top Japanese electronics manufacturers. More than 100 virtual layers of data were recorded on and read back from a 0.6 mm thick TeraDisc without showing any signal degradation. At ISOM '07, an international conference on optical memory (October 2007, Singapore), the company detailed the opto-mechanical, servo techniques and disc structure of its TeraDisc technology showing its comparability to that of the DVD ecosystem. Towards the end of 2008, the industry can expect to see a demonstration of a prototype of the TeraDisc technology.
Mempile is backed by Israeli, American, Japanese and European equity and strategic investors and has a global presence in Israel and Japan.
Existing optical media, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, record data through light-reflective, semi-transparent layers. However, the capacity of this format is limited to around eight layers of recordable material (approximately 200 GB) because as light passes through these layers it becomes diminished and distorted by the reflections of other layers, making accurate data reading and recording impossible.
Mempile's two-photon technology overcomes this basic limitation by enabling a TeraDisc to remain completely transparent -- both before and after recording. This allows the laser to remain in focus even when reading and writing through previously recorded layers. Thus, a single TeraDisc can record and read 200 virtual layers five microns apart using a red laser, each capable of storing approximately 5 GB of data which may be accessed randomly yielding 1 TB.
TeraDiscs are made from an inexpensive monolithic plastic similar to Plexiglas, and its drive components are comparable to today's optical drives. "As a result the TeraDisc afford consumers a low cost, high capacity archival storage solution, with plug and play functionality and a data lifetime of more than 50 years," Mempile said.
In early 2007, Mempile held a live technology demonstration for top Japanese electronics manufacturers. More than 100 virtual layers of data were recorded on and read back from a 0.6 mm thick TeraDisc without showing any signal degradation. At ISOM '07, an international conference on optical memory (October 2007, Singapore), the company detailed the opto-mechanical, servo techniques and disc structure of its TeraDisc technology showing its comparability to that of the DVD ecosystem. Towards the end of 2008, the industry can expect to see a demonstration of a prototype of the TeraDisc technology.
Mempile is backed by Israeli, American, Japanese and European equity and strategic investors and has a global presence in Israel and Japan.
