News - Boffins build basis for 9TB DVDs

[HEXUS]

All down to the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of gold nanorods, don't you know.

Read more.

[Lanky123]

Very nice science, but kind of pointless IMO unless it can somehow make optical media much more reliable. Even so, in 5-10 years external HDDs/SSDs/memory sticks should by converging on that sort of capacity a little too quickly for a storage medium like this to take off, maybe too much for them to even find a company to back it.

I would like to think that in this day and age we should be moving away from any component that requires moving parts...they all seem to have a habit of getting broken far too often.

[shaithis]

Sound great until you realise that if you touch the disk (or probably even fart near it) it won't read back

[Funkstar]

When people bring up the touch/scratch argument, I trot out the DVD-RAM argument.

Or DP disks, or the old pre CD-R WORM media. In fact I'm sure some CD-R media came in cases. I know my first CD-R drive was cadie based, so was the Comodore CDTV.

Backup tapes are damaged permenantly if you touch the actual tape, but they are in cases that prevent that.

The point is mute

[Hicks12]

Wow something that actually beats HVD theoretical maximum of 6TB albeit its currently at 500gb, is this 9Tb a theoretical amount of actually achievable right now?. I think write speeds would need to seriously increase for this to be a viable backup medium since write speeds are only like 5MB/s arent they?.

[TAKTAK]

It's still redundant tech before it comes out... Alternatives are much cheaper...

[Hicks12]

It's still redundant tech before it comes out... Alternatives are much cheaper...

How so?. They say it will be a similar cost to a normal dvd(i somewhat doubt that) and a 1tb hard drive costs ~£65 now so having 9 of these is quite expensive .

[TAKTAK]

How so?. They say it will be a similar cost to a normal dvd(i somewhat doubt that) and a 1tb hard drive costs ~£65 now so having 9 of these is quite expensive .

The cost on/if release will be astronomical...

Just like initial CD and DVD drives, And why would you want to trust 9TB of data on one disk...?

I certainly wouldn't, it's destined for failure..

[Hicks12]

I agree with the reliability, i wouldnt trust it with that much data just the same as me prefering to have 2x1tb than 1 2tb drive as i prefer tried a proven technology (i have 2x250gb and a 640gb at the mo lol). The cost is something i cant see being as cheap as they say, BR still isnt cheap enough to buy on its own to write to at home but now the actual retail value of BR (films mostly) is coming down to ~£10-£15. I can see this taking over for BR as it has a huge amount of storage compared to it, maybe in about 10years though .

[TooNice]

Reliability wise, CD-R have been fine, DVD have been fine, at least when using quality media. I have some 12+ years old CD and they still read fine. Of course, I wouldn't want it to be the only copy of my data, but it does not have to be. The problem is, it'll probably be out too late (if at all). It took too many CDs to back up a system by the time CDs were affordable. It takes too many DVDs, or even BD discs to back up a system right now. As far as back up is concerned, optical storage is always behind mechanical HD by too much.

[NightshadowUK]

The cost on/if release will be astronomical...

Just like initial CD and DVD drives, And why would you want to trust 9TB of data on one disk...?

I certainly wouldn't, it's destined for failure..

Look outside the box, there's far more to data backup than Joe Bloggs who wants to save his holiday snaps. Businesses are constantly looking for bigger and better ways to archive, take holographic data storage for example, it's pitched at a professional market. Broadcast companies archiving footage, digital cinemas transporting 8K masters - there's more than enough demand for technology like this.

[TAKTAK]

Look outside the box, there's far more to data backup than Joe Bloggs who wants to save his holiday snaps. Businesses are constantly looking for bigger and better ways to archive, take holographic data storage for example, it's pitched at a professional market. Broadcast companies archiving material, digital cinemas transporting 8K masters, there's more than enough demand for technology like this.

Oh aye, the home user isn't the market, but surely mag tape is a better solution for any serious user anyway?...

The technology is proven and it works...

edit: obviously it has it's uses, but for most solutions?..

[NightshadowUK]

There's no arguing with how solid a medium magnetic tape is but it's been in use since the 50's. It's big, clunky, and it takes bloomin' ages to back-up to and restore from.

It's all about progression man , and archiving technology is well overdue some.

[TAKTAK]

There's no arguing with how solid a medium magnetic tape is but it's been in use since the 50's. It's big, clunky, and it takes bloomin' ages to back-up to and restore from.

It's all about progression man , and archiving technology is well overdue some.

But mag tape equipment is big and manly

Discs... just aren't

And i suppose you are right in that archival methods need something new..

[NightshadowUK]

Haha, gotta admit I do feel a wave of femininity every time I poke a disc tray back in...

*Lifts heel up to bum*

[KidChameleon]

Reliability wise, CD-R have been fine, DVD have been fine, at least when using quality media. I have some 12+ years old CD and they still read fine. Of course, I wouldn't want it to be the only copy of my data, but it does not have to be. The problem is, it'll probably be out too late (if at all). It took too many CDs to back up a system by the time CDs were affordable. It takes too many DVDs, or even BD discs to back up a system right now. As far as back up is concerned, optical storage is always behind mechanical HD by too much.

I would say the reliability problem is because one tiny scratch on an optical disc can ruin a lot of the data on it. A 1mm scratch on a CD could (I'm making numbers up now) destroy a few megabytes of data, a 1mm scratch on a DVD could destroy 50MB, a 1mm scratch on a 9TB disc could destroy a few gigabytes. I have no idea what the real numbers would be, but you get my point. At this moment in time, a gigabyte is still a lot of data.