Technical Version
General Electric researchers announced today that the company has made a breakthrough in the development of microholographic storage discs for mainstream use. Using G.E.'s current technology, a single holographic disc could ostensibly hold 500 gigabytes of data -- about 100 times the size of a standard DVD -- and still be readable. Better still, these discs should be commercially viable when they're introduced in 2011 or 2012, coming in at around 10 cents per gigabyte (a pittance compared to Blu-ray's initial price of $1 per gigabyte).
Layman's Version
You know those holographic Jurassic Park stickers you have on the spine of your middle school Trapper Keeper? They're putting those on CDs to make them bigger! That is to say, on the inside. They'll be the same size on the outside, and should still fit snugly within your Saved By The Bell CD case.
[Via Engadget]
Reader Comments (68)
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 10:58PM The Blank Mage Returns said
You know, I hadn't thought of that. It'd still work for collections, though. Having the entirety of a series on a single disc sounds pretty good to me.
Reply
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 11:29PM JXCGunrunna said
back in the days of the PSX we said
"theres no way we will fill an entire CD" then SE did it with FFVII
when i was just a kid i was pretty badass when i put a 6.7 GB HDD into my computer as a slave for saving extra files.
i remember when 64 ram was huge.
trust me guys, we will fill that shit up in a few years.
Reply
"theres no way we will fill an entire CD" then SE did it with FFVII
when i was just a kid i was pretty badass when i put a 6.7 GB HDD into my computer as a slave for saving extra files.
i remember when 64 ram was huge.
trust me guys, we will fill that shit up in a few years.
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 11:44PM WhiteTreeWolf said
The entire space won't be used for linear data. Even Blu-Ray uses redundant data to speed up load times. Even then this won't be used for games for a VERY long time.
Reply
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 9:07AM vidguy said
"there's no way anyone's going to use all of it in a game"
What a shortsighted statement. smcn's comment is very apt. It's ridiculous to say, "oh, they'll never use x." The only thing that will save games from growing that big is better compression schemes, but as the discs get cheaper there will be less incentive to compress. Just look at games that get close to filling BluRay. They could probably be compressed to ~15GBs, but why worry about it?
"making 500 gbs of gameplay is not cost-effective"
Making a game that was 1GB was not cost effective 15 years ago. Making a game that was more than 5GB was not cost effective 5 years ago.
Someday in the future, there will be games that big. They'll be flash drives with 500GB. They'll be harddrives with 10 terabytes. It will happen.
Reply
What a shortsighted statement. smcn's comment is very apt. It's ridiculous to say, "oh, they'll never use x." The only thing that will save games from growing that big is better compression schemes, but as the discs get cheaper there will be less incentive to compress. Just look at games that get close to filling BluRay. They could probably be compressed to ~15GBs, but why worry about it?
"making 500 gbs of gameplay is not cost-effective"
Making a game that was 1GB was not cost effective 15 years ago. Making a game that was more than 5GB was not cost effective 5 years ago.
Someday in the future, there will be games that big. They'll be flash drives with 500GB. They'll be harddrives with 10 terabytes. It will happen.
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 10:32PM OremLK said
$0.10/gb is pretty good--that's about what platter-based hard drives are going for these days.
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 10:43PM ChrisAre said
I think SOMEONE hit the "Joystiq" button when he meant to hit the "Engadget" button... Griffin, I'm lookin' at you buddy.
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 10:57PM The Blank Mage Returns said
One step closer to Ghost in the Shell, baby, YEAH!
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 11:07PM s ls said
Yes!!! my future wifey!
My avatar switches between Sackboy and Hayley Williams. i have no idea why? I tried to permanently change it to my Hayley Williams but Joystiq is silly like that.
My avatar switches between Sackboy and Hayley Williams. i have no idea why? I tried to permanently change it to my Hayley Williams but Joystiq is silly like that.
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 11:31PM ColorblindMonk said
One step closer to building a Death Star... yes... yes... *evil plotting*
Posted: Apr 27th 2009 11:55PM (Unverified) said
I don't care if they stuck 500 EXABYTES on a chip the size of my pinky nail that works in every electronic storage device known to man.
GE can fuck themselves, until they decide to get out of governmental affairs, and quit taking over American media companies.
GE can fuck themselves, until they decide to get out of governmental affairs, and quit taking over American media companies.
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 12:07AM R Planteer said
Am I the only one in this world tired of loud disk drives and fragile disks that can be rendered worthless by dropping them at the wrong time?
Flash media is where its at...
Flash media is where its at...
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 9:17AM (Unverified) said
Exactly...I really expect to see a switch back to cartridge gaming with the cheapness and storage capacity of flash memory. Right now, a 32 GB CF card runs around $80 or so. In 3-4 years, that will drop considerably. Add to it a custom form factor would help prevent piracy, and you've got something pretty close to Blu-Ray capacity with much higher transfer speeds and no moving parts.
Reply
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 12:39AM Lekko said
"about 100 times the size of a standard DVD -- and still be readable"
Yeah, would be kinda pointless if you could write all that data to the disc and not read any of it.
Yeah, would be kinda pointless if you could write all that data to the disc and not read any of it.
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 7:52AM JoshMilewski said
Blu-ray is dead (seriously, maybe).
Posted: Apr 28th 2009 2:07PM 343 Guilty Fart said
Looks like I'm gonna have to buy the White Album again...




