The Disc of 1000 Gigs: Israeli Company Developing 1 Terrabyte (TB) of Storage

Only days after the announcement that Ricoh Technologies has developed a device able to play both HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs, rumors quickly surfaced that an Israeli firm (Matteris Limited) is working on a disc that will use holographic technologies to hold a whopping 1 TB (or 1000 Gigabytes) of data. (Source: teamxbox.com)

By using the nano-technology at its disposal, Matteris hopes to fit literally millions of bits -- grouped into holograms -- into the volume (instead of the surface) of the medium at hand. Every individual hologram is formed into 1000 x 1000 bits, a process that is allowing Matteris to fit 1 Terrabyte of material onto their test discs.

The previous record for disc storage was held by Colorado-based InPhase Technologies, which boasted 515 GB of storage by using its patented Tapestry system. (Source: digitaltvdesignline.com)

So, what about today's generation of DVD discs?

By comparison, the much-anticipated Blu-Ray disc from Sony stores just 27GB of data. (Source: matimop.org)

If this technology sounds complicated, that's because it is. For now, Matteris -- a company formed only in 2004 -- is developing the 1 TB disc exclusively for enterprises and archives. If successful, however, insiders believe it will eventually make its way to the consumer market, and again revolutionize the entertainment industry.

It might be unlikely to assume that Matteris will soon release a 1 TB disc for the home market. It might also be silly to assume that home theatres will be playing discs 37 times more powerful than Blu-Ray by this or next Christmas. Regardless, it appears Matteris Ltd is using holograms -- no longer restricted to Star Trek lore -- to give the tech industry its first look at the distant future of disc storage.