Using an innovative nanoimprint technology, Hitachi Maxell, LTD have succeeded in creating the world’s thinnest DVD media at 0.092mm thick.
This makes the new disc approximately 1/13th the thickness of existing DVD media, yet allows it to retain the full 4.7GB capacity. Obviously a single disc isn’t going to gain you any benefits simply by being thinner, but if you were to take a stack of say 100-discs, make them double-sided (9.4GB), stuff them into a cartridge 2.5-inches thick, and slap a fancy acronym like SVOD on it, you’d have a digital library cartidge with almost 1TB of capacity (940 MB GB). SVOD, which stands for Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc, really starts to shine when coupled with the next generation of blue laser technology, as a stack of 50GB discs could increase storage capacity to 5TB.
The system features what the company calls Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc (SVOD) technology, which consists of 100 ultra-thin optical discs (12-cm in diameter, the same as current DVDs) loaded into a 6.5-cm (2.5-inch) thick cartridge. The result is a compact optical disc library system (1/10th the conventional size) capable of combining random access memory and long-term storage.
When laminated on both sides, disc capacity will reach 9.4 GB, bringing the 100-disc cartridge up to near-terabyte level with 940 GB of storage. The company claims that next-generation blue laser technology could boost cartridge capacity to 5 terabytes (50 GB for each double-sided disc).
According to Hitachi Maxell, potential applications of this storage media include library systems for business and institutions. While continuing to investigate other applications, the company aims to cultivate the market by presenting this technology at academic conferences and exhibitions.
When released the discs will be priced at under $325 for a 100-disc cartridge.
