Optical Society announces gods CD from the huge storage capacity: disks from 500 TB. A huge result, achieved collecting data in 5D thanks to the processing of carbon nanoparticles. Could these 2.0 CDs be the memories of tomorrow?
500TB disks, thanks to 5D storage
A team of experts from the Optica Society institute has leveraged 5D technology to build truly powerful CDs. The complex technology takes advantage of the ability to store data on three levels of carbon nanoparticles, called ‘dots’. In addition to using the three physical dimensions of the dots to record data, writing to these discs also takes them into account orientation and theirs size compared to other nanoparticles. Two extra dimensions for recording data.
This type of technology was theorized and put into practice in other prototypes before today. But Optica Society had the merit of solving the problems that made this technology practicable in fact. Their technological solution could now be used for commonly used products. For example to store more movies than you could see in a year.
5D storage not only offers more capacity but also better durability. In fact you can heat it up to one thousand degrees Celsius without ruining them. And these discs, when stored at a standard temperature, can theoretically last for 13.8 billion years. Which is the time passed from the Big Bang to today, to give you an idea.
The problem, however, is the writing speed, which reaches the maximum to 230 kB/s. Not quite the speed you want on a disc for playing video games. But the researchers are working on ways to speed up the process, starting with the parallel writing.
These discs aren’t ready to hit our PCs yet. But they represent an important point for research in the computer field. May an improved version be able bring CDs back into fashion?