Category — Nanotechnology

It looks like some clever scientists have developped what could be the next big optical storage medium.  Their new format – which has yet to be branded with any ridiculous marketing labels – can hold up to 1.6 TB on a single disk!

How did they do it?  Well, I told you they were clever.  On current-gen optical storage disks, data is stored in one long spiral, which the read laser follows, reading the data bit by bit as the disk spins.  With this new format, data can be read in parallel, because each position along the read line of the disk contains information encoded in several different ways – by wavelength, polarization, and layered into the depth dimension of the disk.  This means that the read head (probably a combination of several different lasers – it’s still in development) will read several different pieces of info at any given point on the disk – from different layers, at different wavelengths, and at different polarizations.

Sounds to me like a handy way to store data for parallel processing!  The data is stored in different ways, apparently including gold atoms and nano-rods made of… well, I’ll have to get back to you on that (carbon atoms?  Some kind of semiconductor?).

Don’t go throwing out your Blu-ray players and PS3s just yet.  This is till early in development, and I personally doubt this format is going to find its way into the realm of personal entertainment.  Even if it becomes economically viable to produce these disks (not to mention the players), by then we’ll have all joined the download/streaming revolution, and individually purchased multimedia disk units that gather dust on shelves will be a thing of the past!  I can hope, right?!

Carbon nanotubes have been in the news lately, thanks to a few researchers who’ve been finding some interesting applications for the promising little structures.  While we haven’t yet arrived at the point where nanotech is transforming our everyday lives, it’s great to see this kind of headway!  Keep reading for a look at what kind of breakthroughs have been made recently.

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