Holographic Versatile Disc

Hitachi to release InPhases next big thing

Everybodys heard about the war over the next step in optical storage. With DVD technologies not showing what it takes to give us high definition video images from recorded media, a true high def storage format has been looming on the horizon. HD DVD is Toshibas answer to that problem, a technology that has been in development since soon after the DVD hit stores. It represents the next step in optical storage that will utilize the blue laser medium and will be available sometime in 06.
Toshibas HD DVD will give users 15Gigs on a single layer disc 10 more gigs than conventional red laser DVD. Sony has since jumped into the fray, complicating matters with a next gen optical storage medium of their own. Sonys version of what a blue laser can do is called Blu-Ray and features greater numbers than Toshibas HD DVD and now has an edge in industry backing up the new Blu-Ray technology. Blu-Ray will give users a jump on HD DVD with up to 27Gigs on a single layer disc. Hence the lines are drawn in this battle for blue laser dominance as the consumer electronics world braces for another war.

Format wars are never a good thing for new technologies. So many hurdles already face new products on the market without consumer confusion being added. The last thing anyone wants to hear about now is yet another competitor jumping into the next generation optical format wars, but its about to happen anyway.

News has been circulating among the techie elite for awhile now. Whispers of a firm called InPhase perfecting a holographic storage technology that promised to blow the doors off any of those blue laser formats. The technology looks promising with storage capacities well surpassing anything thought possible so soon after DVD. But still, the new technology is right up there with weather and mind control beams, only a curiosity to be read about on news groups and pondered whether or not this really exists. That was until Hitachi-Maxell Inc stepped up to the plate entering into an agreement with InPhase to give us a release date for the new format.

Holographic Versatile Disc goes from the stuff of science fiction to a tangible reality sometime late in 06, according to Hitachi. This will be a 1.6 terabyte rewritable storage disc, but only in its first phase. Later iterations are projected to be able to provide 3.9 terabytes of storage with speedy transfer rates in the 50-60 MB/s range. This isnt your fathers optical storage medium. Dubbed Holographic Versatile Disc by the industry, so far it looks like a practical backup medium for your PC.

Studios havent announced plans to release films in the format just yet. But the incredible jump from HD DVD or Blu-Ray is so compelling this format is not likely to be ignored. The difference simply cannot be placed into the same category with the existing format wars. If Sony and Toshiba arent careful, it looks like Hitachi is going to surpass both of them with superior technology.