NTT announces holographic memory breakthrough

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 17 Feb 2004 at 11:24

The Japanese telecommunications giant NTT has been pushing the boundaries of holographic storage. It's not quite 'Hamlet on the holo-deck' yet, in terms of three-dimensional imaging, but the holographic principles of light interference patterns are being used for a high-capacity storage device.

Called Info-MICA (Information-Multilayered Imprinted CArd), the new memory is capable of storing 1GB of data within the size of a postage stamp, reports NE Asia Online.

For data storage, digital data is converted to a two-dimensional image which is then stored using holographic principles, on the special multi-layered media. For data retrieval, a laser beam will be used to re-convert the interference patterns back to the images and then the original data.

A 100-layer prototype has been created along with a prototype drive for reading the data.

As well as the high-density holographic storage, other possible advantages of Info-MICA include the fact that the media can be mass produced at low cost, its power consumption is low and the media is totally recyclable. You can find more info on Info-MICA at www.info-mica.com.

Holographic processing is on the (distant) horizon for optical drives, too - as fifth generation devices. While CDs represent second-generation optical devices and DVDs represent a third-generation, Blu-ray laser disk processing represents the near future (as a blue-laser high capacity optical disc format). According to Philips Research scientists, however, holographic processing will be involved in the next generation of devices after Blu-ray.

See also

New optical disc standard steps out