Optical Storage

The original optical media was the CD, capable of holding 650mb on inexpensive and convenient media that made it a run away favorite for data transfer and backup. Recently this was followed by the DVD offering 4.7G of storage on the same size disc. The next evolution in optical storage is currently in development and promises to further these storage capabilities significantly.

• Sharp hits 100G with optical discs
  

Both CD and DVD recordable drives use a red laser technology to burn and read the media. In order to offer a higher level of storage on the same platter size, the next optical format will switch to a blue laser.

Currently there are two blue laser formats fighting for acceptance. HD-DVD is promoted by NEC and Toshiba and is expected to hold about 15G on single sided media, doubling that on dual sided discs. Note that current DVD media is also available in dual sided discs also offering double the storage. Sony and Matsushita meanwhile are pushing a second standard they call Blue-ray which is currently capable of 29G per side.

The winner in these efforts will be driven primarily by the video market. Hollywood is nervous about losing more money to pirating if an inexpensive technology is available for copying high definition versions of movies. It will also depend upon which technology is capable of holding the entirety of a long motion picture at the high definition level. This depends not only upon the storage capacity of the media but also the video and audio codecs that will be used in the standard to achieve the highest quality in the most efficient manner.

Whatever the winner, the publishing world will welcome a new high quality standard offering high capacity in a convenient package and at attractive pricing.

Recently, dual-sided DVD has become more popular and the most recent Apple systems now feature the ability to burn dual-sided DVDs. This effectively doubles the capacity of a DVD, but requires dual-sided media.

The next generation battle continues with both sides prototyping media with additional layers for higher storage capacities. HD-DVD is claiming up to 45G with their latest generation and Blue-ray has now claimed to have gone past 100G.