Boffins claim to stick 200,000 DVDs on a single disk

It will take a couple thousand hours to burn a petabyte disk if current DVD burn speeds can be used as basis for comparison.

I suspect that the RIAA members will find a way to make a regular 120 minute movie require 1PB of disk for retail sale though! 

The source funding to bring the tech to market is pretty obvious.

I like how Nik implies that it will obsolete Blu-ray. This tech is decades (if not further) away.

most of these silly press releases are to secure funding, nothing else. The fact that some people get sucked in by it all, says alot about these people.

Seeing as though a CD or a DVD is already something quite fragile...protection technology would have to greatly increase if such high volumes of data are to be placed on a single disc.
A minor crack on a microscopic level could potentially ruin several petabytes of data.
Regardless of what your data is, you would not want petabytes of it damaged. Most people do not even know how much information that is...so lets just say its a really long number...long enough to want to have it intact.

Perhaps a special casing such as the old magneto optical discs?

Isn't the ability of a read/write mechanism to successfully access a target data layer inversely proportionate to the number of layers it has to negotiate? "200 layers"? I would like to know what the error rate for layer 200 is. 

Investors in this type of research should save their money. Other than films, there is already enough storage space available for anything you need to keep, never mind what will be available by the time they managed to commercialise this tech.

Also with the adoption of fast wireless systems like 4G why worry about storing multi GB films when they will be available on tap within seconds wherever you are on whatever device you choose.

Even gazing into that hazy crystal ball I can see no reason for this technology to live. Hey in the time it takes for this to breathe life, I'll probably have a 1TB memory stick hanging off my keyring.


This level of data storage will be required for the new super HD television system that the Japanese are currently developing.

Super Hi-Vision, also known as Ultra High Definition Video, UHDV is an experimental digital video format, currently proposed by NHK of Japan.

Super Hi-Vision's main specifications:

Resolution: 7,680 × 4,320 pixels (16:9) (approximately 33 megapixels)
Frame rate: 60 frame/s.
Audio: 22.2 channels

The new format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high as existing HDTV.


Blu-Ray is already obsolete.

Thats a lot of porn.


Anyone saying "this is ridiculous, we don't need this". I'd like to draw your attention to a couple of quotes.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -
Bill Gates 

"Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM, which is more than any application will ever need." 
- Microsoft


You have no idea what is going to happen with future technology. If we have 1PB on a storage disk, that means we can most probably have 1PB on a HDD, which means games, applications, web servers, and just about everything else can contain more information and be more detailed.

Imagine the amount of detail a game could have if it took up 15TB of space.

Theory is all well and good, but it's error tolerances that keep other media from being 2-10X their capacity.

The theory of X number of layers is fine, but using nano tech to make the disks means to me that the reject rate is going to much higher than blue ray, and at 50-200 layers, I would question how pristine these disks must be kept in order to do that differentiation.

Give me a 1/4 of the capacity with much better redundancy and reliability and I'd prefer that.

Oh come on, all forms of data transmission and storage have become massively more huge over the years, so why does this come as a surprise to anyone? It's never going to stop... bigger, better, faster more.

But think about it.

Ten years ago we were passing around blocky 1MB video clips of poorly encoded expert fellatio on burned out floppy disks.

Now it's dolby surround DVD feature presentations delivered on USB Sticks.

Yeah, man. Bring it on. I'm not going to be happy until I plug in my 5TB holographic oxo-cube and experience disorientating displays of pubic follicles scattered across Cindy Pumpnozzle's right labium majora at POINT BLANK range.

Did Anybody Mention Tomorrow,( that is Today in Readers Terms,) IS UPDATE Tuesday? Want to Know whats, What? I Won't Tell You.

52 done layers, How reliably does it READ? thats about 200 petrabytes, So Think of Applications. Home Libaries of Specific Subject having every know document on subject. 4,000 movies, ala BD. 
Start Your Own.... , Hey-Boffin, Is that Rewriteable? 
This sounds remarkable for any rural area that needs alot, yet NO idea what will be needed. 
No Matter what; it KILLS Hologram with Pitchfork. Remember those Old Laser discs, Why Crimp on Size. Ultie_Toms' NEW Super Duper 278 layered Ultra Ultie Blue Disc would come in at:15 Terraytes on EACH Side. 
NEXT: GAMMA RAY DISC.... Tsechnology.

Great, now instead of losing ~4.7 gbs of data every time a disk get's scratched we're are going to lose a petabyte.....


Good thing I have this 54 terabit link avaliable at R$ 19,90 a month on my intewebs provider.