Blu-ray offers quantum leap in capacity
Blu-ray offers quantum leap in capacity
The next generation of optical disk technology will have around five times the capacity of the current DVD disk technology but will cost no more to produce than DVD disks when manufactured in mass volumes.
That is a according to Matsushita, Philips and Sony - three of the leading advocates of the new technology, known as Blu-ray.
Rather than the traditional red laser used by DVD and CD technology, Blu-ray uses a blue laser (hence the name), which allows manufacturers to cram 25 gigabytes of data on a single layer disk, compared to just 4.7 gigabytes on a single layer DVD disk.
The Blu-ray technology is expected to be particularly popular for storing digital content that requires a lot of capacity, such as high definition movies and digital images. The other key application for Blu-ray will be data storage.
The technology is supported by a collective of 13 major manufacturers, known as the Blu-ray Disk Founders. The consumer electronics, PC and media manufacturing sectors are represented in the group, whose job it is to address the key components necessary to establish the format as a standard, measuring the quality, robustness, compatibility and effectiveness of the technology, amongst other things.
While blue laser technology will not be able to read red laser disks, recognising the market's desire for backwards compatibility, Blu-ray drive manufacturers will produce drives that can read both blue and red laser media.
Blu-ray drives are already in production, with Plasmon - who recently signed an agreement with HP to deploy its Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drives into HP's StorageWorks optical libraries – among the companies at the cutting edge. Maureen Weber, general manager of optical storage solutions at HP, outlined why HP is backing the technology.
"Capacity and cost savings were the main reasons HP and other industry leaders chose to support Blu-ray disk. The PC business revolves around volume and cost; the fact that the most logical cost choice also offers far better quality – as well as a smooth transition plan that is both forward and backward looking – is icing on the cake."
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