Do you think a multi-GB optical disc is the end of it all? Think again! A company named Mempile is developing an optical disc that they claim will store 1TB of your data.
The company has stated that the key to this high capacity in optical discs is the use of custom polymer that is essentially transparent to the laser used in the drive. This polymer has allowed the company to pack roughly 200 virtual layers onto a single 1.2mm disc. Each of these 200 layers can store 5GB of data, taking the capacity of the disc to a whooping 1TB.
The company has stated that their disc will be able to store your data for a period of 50 years, but they don’t expect to release a prototype for a year and a half. Mass production of these discs might only be commenced after another year.
Optical discs are always regarded as a slow medium of storage. It will be interesting to see how the drives cope up with speed when they are burning data onto a disc that can store the complete data on a normal PC with still some space to spare.
Via: Tech Report
