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Israeli company Mempile has unveiled a technology for storing up to a terabyte (1TB) of data on a standard-size, 12cm clear polymer disc - that's 950GB more than a double-layer Blu-ray disc and 300GB more than even the most optimistic estimates for blue-laser technologies.

Existing optical media store data through the use of light-reflective semi-transparent technologies, adding capacity by adding layers of data. But the partial reflection from the multiple layers leads to signal reduction, background noise and interference, limiting the number of layers of data that can be deployed.

Mempile's patented non-linear two-photon

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technology enables 3D recording of transparent virtual layers - as many as 100 layers on a disc. In a disc the thickness of a DVD, 1.2 mm, the company says it can store 5GB per layer for a total of 500GB of data. Future optimisation aims to double the number of layers, raising the capacity to a terabyte.

"From iPods to Tivo, the amount of digital content that consumers are recording and storing in their homes is increasing like never before," says Avi Huppert, Mempile's CEO. "The resulting problem is that the information is stored as 'islands' on various devices as well as on home PCs, which often function as a central repository by backing up the content of the devices, with the inherent risk of the hard disk drive crashing.

"Mempile's TeraDisc technology will, for the first time, enable consumers to permanently store one terabyte of data on a single, removable DVD-size disc at a fraction of the price of alternative solutions on the market."

The company recently demonstrated the technology to several Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers but has not yet said when or if any plan to adopt it. Mempile would only say that drives for the discs could be available in two to three years.