GE Introduces 500GB Holographic Disks 370
bheer writes "According to the NYTimes, at a conference next month, GE will debut their new holographic storage breakthrough — 500GB disks that will cost 10 cents a GB to produce at launch. GE will first focus on selling the technology to commercial markets like movie studios and hospitals, but selling to the broader corporate and consumer market is the larger goal."
I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
"This could be the next generation of low-cost storage," said Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering, a technology research firm.
The G.E. development, however, could be that pioneering step, according to analysts and experts.
So a player that could read microholographic storage discs could also read CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. But holographic discs, with the technology G.E. has attained, could hold 500 gigabytes of data.
You guys remember that cool new technology that was going to revolutionize the way we store data? The one that was just 11 years away? Well we could be one year closer to that realization today perhaps maybe.
People that know more than you and might even be experts possibly speculated that this might be a reality within some amount of time. It brings me great joy to announce to you that now we're maybe in the ballpark. You yourself have the chance to be alive when this thing hits. And it could be big.
Perhaps tomorrow it will be in my computer or the fabrication process might not ever be cheaply implemented and then we could wait longer than five years possibly. "It's so tantalizingly exciting but still just over that next hill we think," is what I said last year and now look. I may have been correct or at least within one standard deviation of time for this product.
This is exciting to the point that I very well may scream. I think now is the time to possibly ask yourself: are you ready for what might turn into something big? Because it could be around the corner.
Holoduke (Score:5, Funny)
Will this hologram technology be capable of storing a Holoduke?
Re:Not good enough. (Score:5, Funny)
$0.10/gb * 500 GB = $50. I can buy a 1 TB hard drive for around $80. Why would I use this stuff?
Because it's holographic!
Sure it would... (Score:4, Funny)
...and it'll store it Forever too!
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Did you know, statistically it is possible that every molecule in your body will spontaneously relocate itself to the moon? This COULD happen!
Re:Not good enough. (Score:3, Funny)
That's disc, not disk.
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hard drives are cheaper now. (Score:5, Funny)
If you sold them for less than they cost to manufacture you'd qualify for bailout money.
Re:Not good enough. (Score:5, Funny)
RS
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
On the plus side, Holographic storage is perpetually 2-5 years away, which makes it ever so much closer than fusion, which is forever 20 years out.
That reminded me of my Computation Theory class, where some sets were "more infinite" than others.
Damn you. ;)
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Bullshit. It's more likely that they'll relocate to a NASA sound stage.
Re:Hard drives are cheaper now. (Score:5, Funny)
If you sold them for less than they cost to manufacture you'd qualify for bailout money.
No. If you sold them for less than the cost of manufacture you would be a horizontally integrated Japanese manufacturer.
Re:Not good enough. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:3, Funny)
+1 Douglas Adams!
"Infinite Improbability Drive"
Re:For the same reasons we use discs now (Score:4, Funny)
So that whirring spinning noise coming from my DVD player is just a trapped hamster then ?
Re:Not good enough. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not good enough. (Score:4, Funny)
So this is one of them newfangled holodrives, eh?
Can't wait to pop this baby in and fire it up.
OH SHIT WAIT DON'T OPEN THE BOX! You can't expose these to light! FUCK!
Re:Not good enough. (Score:2, Funny)
Psssh.
Like any nerd opening one of these things up would also have sufficient ambient light to scramble the bits.
Sorry, but a command prompt doesn't give off that much light, even 2 or 3 screens worth.
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
They sell ecomagination!
Re:Not good enough. (Score:5, Funny)
It's what your data needs!
-Peter
who needs this much storage? ;-) (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I Could Be Really Excited About This--Maybe (Score:2, Funny)
I want my flying jetpack damn it!
That sounds like too much trouble... you'd have to coax it down to ground level just to put it on.
Re:Optikal disks (Score:3, Funny)
Blu-ray Disc also uses "disc", as does the DVD Forum's semi-official expansion of DVD as "digital versatile disc". The pattern here is that optical storage uses "disc", while magnetic storage uses "disk".
And, of course, the 1990s-era magneto-optical "disck" completes the taxonomy.
Re:Not good enough. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not good enough. (Score:4, Funny)
Yep. It also means all the data is stored on the surface of a sphere surrounding the disk [wikipedia.org].
I'll crawl back to my hole now,
-l
Oh, now be fair. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Based on this post, it's been done for 10 years :-).
Oh, now be fair. He didn't once utter the phrases, "What?", "I don't understand" or "Where's the tea?"
-FL