Researchers to Boost Blu-Ray and HD DVD to 500GB

By Greg McNevin

July 9, 2007: Researchers at the University of Berlin in Germany have worked out a method of data storage that will bump Blu-Ray and HD DVD optical disk storage capacity up to 500GB.

In partnership with the Budapest University of Technology and the Economics and Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, the researches used a “microholographic” recording technique that interacts with nanostructures inside the disk to store data rather than writing it on the surface.Called the Microholas project, the microholographic technique uses wavelength multiplexing techniques to create many layers multi-layer disc structures. Normally a Blu-Ray or HD DVD disc contains 25GB and 15GB respectively, with a dual-layer HD DVD disc notching up 30GB. Using Microholas, however, 500GB can be crammed into 50 layers, and according to Professor Susanna Orlic in an interview with the German site Pressetext, the technology could eventually store up to 1TB of data on a single disc.

The immediate thought on most people’s minds will naturally be “How many movies is that!”, however, Orlic adds that the technology is first and foremost being aimed at secure, long-term data archiving.

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