A Terabyte on a DVD?

December 18th, 2006: A team from the University of Central Florida (UCF) claims it has developed a way to increase the storage capacity of a normal DVD to at least a terabyte.

Developed by Chemistry Professor Kevin D. Belfield and his team of researchers, the Two-Photon 3-D Optical Data Storage system uses two different wavelengths of light to record data on several layers of a disc.

“For a while, the community has been able to record data in photochromic materials in several layers. The problem was that no one could figure out how to read out the data without destroying it. But we cracked it,” said Belfield to UCF’s online news service. “The use of two lasers creates a very specific image that is sharper than what current techniques can render. Depending on the colour (wavelength) of the light, information is written onto a disk. The information is highly compacted, so the disk isn’t much thicker. It’s like a typical DVD.

“The challenge scientists faced for years was that light is also used to read the information. The light couldn’t distinguish between reading and writing, so it would destroy the recorded information. Belfield’s team developed a way to use light tuned to specific colours or wavelengths to allow information that a user wants to keep to stay intact.”

The team says that their discovery could allow the entire records base of the US Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum or 500 movies to be stored on a single disc or even a small cube.

While revolutionary and certainly more credible than the recent paper storage claims, a working prototype may not be seen for at least several years as the team has only just received a US$270,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund its research for the next three years.

With a single disc holding so much data, read/write speeds will certainly play a large part in the viability of this technology. And with so much data in one spot, multiple backups and security would also be required to ensure the entire archive doesn’t disappear with a scratch or into someone’s pocket.

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