Polight Technologies announces first Holonide Media enabling 1TB storage!
Holographic Data Storage (HDS) media developer, Polight Technologies Limited, announced today a technical breakthrough that will eventually enable 1TB (1,000 Gigabytes) of data to be stored on a standard size 120mm disc.
Since the late 1990s the key and missing element to enable HDS to transform removable data storage technologies has been the media - the material into which data is actually written. Polight's innovative approach is based on inorganic glass technology from the University of Cambridge in England. This advanced research has delivered an entirely novel material called Holonide(tm), which offers huge advantages over conventional HDS media.
Two key challenges have been faced by HDS media developers in recent years: firstly, wasteful scattering of laser light though the media, which reduces the density and reading speed. Secondly, achieving a high "M#" - an industry figure of merit that broadly describes the capacity that can be expected in a real product. Holonide(tm)'s patent pending formulation gives it extremely high optical quality, eliminating the light scattering issue, whist the M# achieved indicates a potential capacity of 1TB compressed (500GB uncompressed) in a first generation product in early 2005.
Polight's materials, sensitive to either green or low cost red lasers, allow a fundamentally low cost manufacturing process to be adopted, using many elements of existing recordable DVD disc production processes. As a result, Holonides(tm) will ultimately enable low cost consumer applications to be developed.
Michael Ledzion, Polight's CEO commented: "From a 'virtual' company less than 12 months ago, Polight is now delivering consistently high quality results that offer huge improvements in media performance. Recent investment in new clean-room facilities means that Polight is on schedule to offer drive companies and end users a uniquely competitive solution for storing huge quantities of image, multimedia and archival data. We look forward to working with our partners to deliver these exciting new products."
Two key challenges have been faced by HDS media developers in recent years: firstly, wasteful scattering of laser light though the media, which reduces the density and reading speed. Secondly, achieving a high "M#" - an industry figure of merit that broadly describes the capacity that can be expected in a real product. Holonide(tm)'s patent pending formulation gives it extremely high optical quality, eliminating the light scattering issue, whist the M# achieved indicates a potential capacity of 1TB compressed (500GB uncompressed) in a first generation product in early 2005.
Polight's materials, sensitive to either green or low cost red lasers, allow a fundamentally low cost manufacturing process to be adopted, using many elements of existing recordable DVD disc production processes. As a result, Holonides(tm) will ultimately enable low cost consumer applications to be developed.
Michael Ledzion, Polight's CEO commented: "From a 'virtual' company less than 12 months ago, Polight is now delivering consistently high quality results that offer huge improvements in media performance. Recent investment in new clean-room facilities means that Polight is on schedule to offer drive companies and end users a uniquely competitive solution for storing huge quantities of image, multimedia and archival data. We look forward to working with our partners to deliver these exciting new products."
