Panasonic says that its 100GB Blu-ray discs will last a century

[Dave]

Panasonic says that its new 4-layer 100GB Blu-ray discs are so durable that you'll be able to retrieve the data in 100 years' time (which reminds us a lot of the claims they originally made about CDs, as one may recall). The company has been at work for the last few years making use of "tellurium suboxide palladium-doped phase-change recording films" (or Te-O-Pd, for those in the know) to improve the capacity of its Blu-ray discs. But the company has now achieved what appears to be the optimal ratio for durability and size: a 100GB disc that will last you a century. Of course, a few months ago Panasonic scientists completed a research paper showing a disc-making technique that kicked that timeframe up to 500 years, but could only hold 50GB of data. So that may indicate that if you have 1GB that you really need to be preserved for the next several thousand years, you may want to get some serious cash together and give Panasonic a ring. Of course, all of these developments assume that firstly in 100 years Blu-ray readers will have won the format war, and secondly, will still be around.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/19/p...ast-a-century/

[Dave]

Panasonic Realizes '100-Year Durable' 4-Layer BD-R Disc Supporting 2x Writing Speed

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. has developed a 4-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) medium using Te-O-Pd film for inorganic recording layers. Total capacity reaches 100 GB with each layer having 25 GB storage capacity. This is the company's first report of four-layer BD discs. By revising a Te-O-Pd composite proportion, the company reportedly achieved durability that allows data playback after 100 years.

Te-O-Pd film is an inorganic material, which Matsushita considers the cornerstone of its multilayer technology focusing on the material's high transmittance that makes it easy to increase the number of layers and low solubility that gives minor impact to the environment. In Te-O-Pd, substance transmittance, crystallization speed and durability depend on a composition ratio of these three elements. Matsushita said it discovered a ratio that realizes "100-year durability" (a company spokesperson), while achieving transmittance needed to create a four-layer disc and fast crystallization required for 2x writing speed. The company is yet to determine commercialization schedule, but seems to have developed the disc aimed at long-term storage (archive) applications, in particular.

When replaying data, which was written at 2x speed, at 1x speed, the prototype disc marked a maximum jitter of 8.5%. In addition, calculation using acceleration test results showed that the jitter degrades by 2% after more than 100 years at a temperature of 30 degrees and a humidity of 85%, or after more than 1,000 years at 25 degrees and 55%.

As for BD-R multilayer disc technology, TDK Corp. realized 2x writing speed with a 100 GB, four-layer disc (25 GB per layer) in 2005, and 1x writing speed with a 200 GB, six-layer disc (33.3 GB per layer) in 2006.

[AV_Integrated]

Gotta say - I got my Van Halen 5150 CD in 1986 or so and it still plays fine on my CD player. I don't necessarily disbelieve that the data would go away quickly... except some recordables may fail.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by AV_Integrated

I got my Van Halen 5150 CD in 1986 or so and it still plays fine on my CD player.

OMG!

I have lost a lot of data, but all my data is recorded by myself.
Best quality recordable CDs are Verbatim (experience). The oldest i have is from 1999 and is still at its best.

[aryntha]

(waiting for someone to chime in as usual that "holographic" storage is "right around the corner")

("any day now")

("no really. i'm looking at my watch.")

("i swear.. it'll make this whole blu-ray thing obsolete")

("any second here...")

[Shadowself]

I've got books well over 100 years old. My eyes still read them (and my great grand children will be able to read them when they are my age).

I've got records about 100 years old. My turn table still plays them (and I can still buy a turn table which can read them).

While I applaud media that lasts 100 years, what assurance do I have that there will be players around in 100 years or even compatible computer or A/V systems which someone can plug an old compatible player into?

These providers need to solve both problems.

[takezo]

Originally Posted by AV_Integrated

Gotta say - I got my Van Halen 5150 CD in 1986 or so and it still plays fine on my CD player. I don't necessarily disbelieve that the data would go away quickly... except some recordables may fail.

Uh, profesionally pressedd optical discs like Audio CD and DVD movies will last forever, if you care for them properly. The data is permenantly pressed into the medium where as consumer level recordable media is "burned" on to materials that change properties when exposed to heat. These changes burned on the material mimic the pressed recesses on professional discs which then can be read by a optical player as digital data. The material after time may change back to it's original form, thus deleting any data stored on them. Better material take longer to return to their previous form.

Simple explanation:
The professionaly pressed medium is like the data is engraved in to the medium, engravings last practically forever if care for them properly. Consumer level medum is burned in, which is eqivalent to writing data with a pen or ink, the time for the data to fade away is determened by the ink and paper, the better the quality, the longer the data will last.

[Don Blish]

In practice, you hope that your media is readable and the gear to read it is around for your children or your local library/university to "migrate" it to the next new thing. I don't see any problem with that. Even the short lived laser disc format lasted long enough for people to migrate their collections to DVD. ... Burrying a disc in a 100 year time capsule may be a problem, however!