GE shows off 1TB holographic discs but Wolf Blitzer remains skeptical

We're confused as to how technology that was supposed to be available in 2006 can still be featured at an Emerging Tech conference in 2009, but so it is for General Electric's attempt at holographic storage. Predicting drives for archival purposes in two or three years with consumer products around two years after that, manager Peter Lorraine claims Blu-ray has "two to four years of life to go" and expects licensees to clean up with speedy 3ms access time, 1TB+ storing (up from a mere 200GB), backwards compatible hardware. The latter portion, plus other breakthroughs in cost and reliability are listed as reasons to believe the market will catch HVD anytime soon, but right now it's about as likely returning to a matching 2006-era MySpace page or believing Wolf was staring at anything other than a mark on the floor on Election Night.

[Via Physorg]

[mdntcallr Posted Oct 2nd 2009 1:17AM]

sounds great to me. disc storage with massive capacity. really neat. this could help me stop needing so many external hard drives.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 2nd 2009 10:35AM]

Seems like holographic storage mechanisms are perpetually "five years" away from mass-market consumer products.

1. Announce new holographic technology with a storage capacity that matches or somewhat exceeds current mass market magnetic media. "This technology will reach consumer devices in 5 years." The geek crowd oooohs and ahhhhs.
2. Time passes and magnetic storage densities continue to increase. Suddenly, the holographic storage capacity announced in step 1 doesn't look all that competitive.
3. Go to step 1.

[EatingPie Posted Oct 2nd 2009 5:19PM]

Would be nice if this lit a fire under the feet of the Blu-ray industry, and they trumped the perpetual vapor holographic disc with a *real* 500GB or 1TB Blu-ray disc.

-Pie

[JDM Posted Oct 2nd 2009 11:48PM]

I've heard from people that holographic storage has been in the works since the 80's. I guess the problem is that once they get it to being consumer-ready, it's already obsolete anyway. I wonder who keeps funding this stuff.

Maybe HVD will be good for archives, but other than movies, I want current information to be accessible now, not after I insert a disc.