500gb on a single optical disc? It's coming!

Currently, BluRay holds the crown for the most amount data that can be crammed on to an optical disc (like a CD or DVD type of "platter"). A standard BluRay disc holds approx 25gb, while a Dual-Layer BD disc holds (obviously) about twice that at 50gb. Well, GE is developing a new optical disc that can hold up to 500gb, and with a bit more development (or go to dual layer) it's likely to at least double to 1tb. This is an amazing amount of storage for such a small format, and it's MUCH more stable than flash drives, hard drives, tape (yeah - some places STILL use tape, believe it or not).

More info:

http://techgage.com/news/ge_begins_sampling_500gb_optical_discs/

 

I wonder if they will be re-writeable? :-D

Bazza

 

Gawd, that's just obscene! I wonder how much the burner will cost, probably another obscene thing for first adopters. I'd like to back up my current 1.5TB onto 3 disks instead of relying on my 2TB HDD which could go south at any moment or in 5 years as it's a mechanical device. It's not if a drive will go bad but when.

#1) Why use an optical disc for daily use instead of off your hard drive? Back it up, store it properly, preferably offsite, and use it only when the HDD dies. Those of us with capped bandwidth, mine is 50GB/month unless I want to pay double for unlimited and that's not worth it to me to stream media considering HD needs. Heck, if one has the money then fine, no argument here.

#2) The biggest SSD that I have found so far is the OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-240G at a price of $560 USD, yes the prices will eventually come down but for now it's just too expensive and at a remarkable 2M hours MTBF(I'll be long in the grave by then:-D) but I would still want a back up as thing's always fry on a computer, sooner or later.

As to scratched/broken discs then just don't use them as frisbees. Back them up again.:confused I handle mine with kid gloves just like my vinyl records.:major

 

Well David, I always hope for the best yet plan for the worst. As to streaming, as more and more folks are doing that theses days what with Netflix etc. that ISP's are near their limit, at least in the US, and will have to upgrade their infrastructure due to all the extra mobile needs also. We all know what means eh?

What about the backbone server's capacities, as I haven't heard much about them? It's going to cost everybody.

At least my cable ISP has gone to optical in the last week, at least on the main trunk lines in my semi-rural area. No increase in speed as I still get my advertised speed but no more pixellation on my TV now which was quite annoying. I forgot about cloud computing, not sure how much impact that will bring in the future.

 

Why would anyone bother challenging Sony for the latest digital media format? Best of luck to General Electric but the only way they'll win the media format war is of Sony opts out. It could be the greatest format since sliced bread but if Sony puts something similar in the PS4 or PS5 then its game over.:major

 

BTW DavidGP, check out this 1TB beauty OCZ Z-Drive R2 P88 1TB PCI-E PCI-Express interface (x8) MLC Enterprise Solid State Disk OCZSSDPX-ZD2P881T at a very reasonable $4190. I rest my case yer honour.:-D Ya, maybe in 5 years. I remember when a tube of 28 or so 256KB RAM chips cost about the same as the above and look where we are some 25 years later.