A US company has just set a record for storage density by recording a capacity of 515 Gb of data on a single square inch.
InPhase Technologies announced that they achieved this record with a drive utilizing three-dimensional (holographic) recording technology. This storage technology promises significantly higher storage capacity compared to traditional magnetic storage media.
The company claims that this new storage technology will enable the creation of holographic disks capable of storing over 100 high-definition movies.
InPhase hopes to unveil their first holographic drive by the end of this year, with products boasting capacities of up to 1.6 terabytes (1 terabyte equals 1,024 gigabytes).
The holographic storage technology employs a three-dimensional image created by laser beams to store information. This concept has been proposed for decades; however, this optical storage technology has only become feasible in recent years.
Kevin Curits, the Chief Technology Officer of InPhase, stated that previous experiments conducted in April 2005 had only achieved a storage density of about 200 Gb per square inch.
In comparison, disks that use magnetic technology, such as those found in current hard drives, only reach a storage density of approximately 37.5 Gb per square inch.
Mr. Curits remarked, “We are very excited about this development pace. Our latest results from experiments on three-dimensional data density have exceeded expectations.”
InPhase claims that holographic storage technology will allow for the storage of larger amounts of data on smaller disk areas. The first generation of InPhase drives is expected to have a capacity of about 300 Gb on a single disk.
Wolfgang Schilichting from IDC commented, “This new storage technology has the potential to replace current technologies in meeting data storage needs.”
