The holographic disc market not dominated by HVD?

[thunderhawk]

The holographic disc market not dominated by HVD?

HVD currently is supported by...

• Alps Electric Corporation, Ltd.
• CMC Magnetics Corporation (supports BD and HD DVD)
• Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc. (DIC)
• EMTEC International (subsidiary of the MPO Group)
• Fuji Photo Film Company, Ltd. (supports BD and HD DVD)
• Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. (supports BD and HD DVD, and partially bought by Sony)
• LiteOn Technology Corporation (supports BD)
• Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Company, Ltd. (MKM) (supports BD)
• Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd.
• Nippon Paint Company, Ltd.
• Optware Corporation
• Pulstec Industrial Company, Ltd. (supports BD)
• Shibaura Mechatronics Corporation (supports HD DVD)
• Software Architects, Inc. (?)
• Suruga Seiki Company, Ltd.
• Targray Technology International, Inc. (supports BD)
• Teijin Chemicals, Ltd. (supports BD and HD DVD)
• Toagosei Company, Ltd.
• Tokiwa Optical Corporation

However...

Competing technologies
HVD is not the only technology in next-generation, high-capacity optical storage media. InPhase Technologies has developed a holographic format they call Tapestry Media, capable of storing up to 1.6TB with a data transfer rate of 120 MB/s. Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. (a BDA Board of Directors member) plans to enter the market by offering 300 GB discs with a data transfer rate of 20 Mbit/s. With such a high end storage capacity, it would seem like a better technology than either HD DVD or Blu-Ray Disc. However, the reader currently costs approximately US$15,000, and a single disc currently costs approximately US$120, and by 2010, will cost about US$100. The market for this format is currently not the common consumer, but is instead for those with very large storage needs. [6].

Will this mean there's going to be competition in the next-gen storage market for professional backup, in the optical division of the market?

Doesn't sound to me that HVD has any chanses of getting something to the average consumer...

[JTK]

Originally Posted by thunderhawk

Doesn't sound to me that HVD has any chanses of getting something to the average consumer...

That's putting it lightly.

It still seems like it's maybe a step above being vaporware outright, at best.

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by JTK

That's putting it lightly.

It still seems like it's maybe a step above being vaporware outright, at best.

All indications are that the first HVD drives and media will ship by the end of this year or Q1 2007. However, being a bit of a pessimist about new technology shipping dates, it would not surprise me if it slipped to Q2 2007.

Only the bleeding edge fanboys with very tenuous grasps on reality have ever claimed the current version of HVD will be a consumer medium. The quote above is correct in that the initial wave of drives will be in the $15,000 range with disks in the $120-$150 range. This is not a ludicrous price for bleeding edge technology. Even full production, high quality, high density tape drives for large archives cost $5,000 or more each and some of the tapes can be over $100 each. However, with full production the 300 GB media should come down to the $20-$30 each range by 2010 not $100. By then the next generation should be shipping with as much as 800 GB - 1 TB disks.

As some of you are aware, I sometimes am asked to put together huge archives (multiple petabyte size archives -- and for comparison, the entire Library of Congress [the largest library on the planet] was less than 2 petabytes) of all kinds of data including video and motion imagery data. I try to track these things (e.g., storage systems and compression methodologies) and be aware of what's probably vapor and what probably isn't.

I often have to choose technology that will be available 2 - 4 years into the future. I usually get it right, but sometimes I blow it. The 14" optical disks back in the late 80s were great for shelf life of the data compared to other media available back then, but the systems became obsolete almost before they were installed which made getting disks a bit of a challenge.

I've been aware of holographic systems since 1981 when I was a lab rat helping an IBM funded study using stressed crystals to store data holographically. It worked in the lab, bu that technology never went anywhere.

Since that time (1981) holographic data storage has been "3-5 years away" year after year after year. Only now it really looks like it is less than a year away from commercially shipping drives and media. This does not mean they are "consumer oriented" drives.

I believe the current HVD drives and media won't challenge HD DVD or BDA. For one thing the transfer rates are too slow; for another, the tolerances are too tight for CE type hardware. These drives, when they start shipping commercially, are still best kept in a controlled, raised floor environment.

Will HVD (or some future variant) eventually replace HD DVD or BDA drives and media? Maybe. Maybe by 2015 or so. However, by then there could be a completely new contender I have not even heard about yet!

[Blue]

I suspect the good old tape technology is once again under severe threat. This HVD technology will replace LTO and DLT, once duke boxes come out for them, but seeing as domestically we don't use this technology (OK a few here might) I don't see any impact on the HD-DVD / Blu Ray markets. However intersting technology most probably comming to a cinema near you one day soon. Don't expect the to drop it into player beside the projecor in the cimema, they will use like a computer disk and drop it into a computer that will delivering the movies to the relevent projectors, and NO you guys you can't have 4K for home

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by Blue

and NO you guys you can't have 4K for home

We can always dream can't we?

4K with DTS-HD MA and THX certification

That's my dream

[Shadowself]

And some people think we should not lust after 4K monitors...

http://news.com.com/Sharps+very%2C+v...3-6122477.html

Maybe someday (2020?) we'll see such things in the consumer market.