The Alternative to Blu-Ray
A major Russian tech firm has announced the discovery of a
new plant-based storage medium which it claims is set to make Blu-ray (and
indeed other optical discs) irrelevant. The new technology utilizes principles
of photonics to record and store data on a film-like medium.
Rostec notes that its new technology utilizes principles of photonics to record
and store data on a film-like medium. The layers comprise of a substance known
as chromones (formed in plants), and the resulting storage device beats out
Blu-ray in terms of not just capacity but also on the performance front.
Rostec is saying that the potential capacity we’re talking about here is up to
1TB – 10GB of data can be stored in a single functional layer — with transfer
rates of up to 12Gbps being claimed at this point. At the moment, this is still
very much in the early stages of development, with the initial sample having
been created, and the tech to be licensed in due course. So there’s no news on
pricing yet, although the company is saying that the new media will be
cost-effective.
As well as the field of storage, Rostec has its hand in many technological pies
including telecoms, optics, security systems, robotics and more. So while
details are relatively thin on the ground at the moment, this is a development
which is clearly worth keeping an eye on.