GE researchers have demonstrated a new micro-holographic storage material that can support 500GB of storage capacity in a standard DVD-size disc – equal to the capacity of 20 single-layer Blu-ray discs, or 100 DVDs.
GE says the discs can be able to be read and recorded on systems ‘very similar’ to a typical Blu-ray or DVD player and that, unlike DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which store information on the surface of the disc, holographic storage technology uses the entire thickness of the disc material.
The company claims that the hardware and formats are so similar to current optical storage technology that micro-holographic players will also enable consumers to play back CDs, DVDs and BDs.
GE believes that the discs will ultimately store more than a terabyte of data.
