1PB Optical Disc Technology Unveiled by Storex

Storex Technologies Inc. has announced at Optical Data Storage 2010 (23-26 May 2010, Boulder, CO), a breakthrough in the data storage technology. They have demonstrated technology that can put 1 million gigabytes (1 Petabyte) onto a single DVD-sized disc.

The process works by recording nanomarks in the form of patterns within the disc. Those nanomarks are then read by lasers, similar to the ones in DVD players.

The minimum nanomark dimension used in 3D recording and readout processes was 40 nm.

The nanomarks are organized in virtual multilayers, produced in fluorescent photosensitive glass-ceramics discs, and permit petabytes data storage capacity.

One of the most interesting aspect is the extremely long life of the media estimated at more than 5,000 years.

Comments

Based in Wilmington, DE and Bucharest, Romania Storex Technologies was incorporated in 2007.

Romanian scientist Dr. Eugen Pavel, the company's founder and CEO, at the heart of this 1PB Hyper-CD, has done research since many years in the field of fluorescent photosensitive glasses and glass-ceramics. The company holds patents on glass and glass-ceramics compositions as well as read/write mechanics and optics concepts applicable to high-density data storage.

Fluorescent Multilayer Disc (FMD), but with a different kind of media compared to Storex, was an optical disc format developed by Constellation 3D with a 50GB prototype demonstrated at COMDEX in November 2000 [We were there and saw the poor demo. Ed.]. But the prototype was a hoax as the content was in fact playing on a hard disk drive and then the company ran out of money. This firm, headed by Dr. Eugene Levich and born in 1995, was headquartered in New York City, NY, with labs in Russia and Israel, and got $35.9 million in financial funding.

A newly-formed firm called D Data Inc. acquired the patent portfolio of Constellation 3D in 2003, its CEO being Henrikas Iouchkiavit, followed by other firm, New Medium Enterprise, all of them apparently disappearing.

Storex stated that life of its media estimated at more than 5,000 years. First, it has to be proved. Secondly, there is not one expert in any storage technology that can believe it. Dr. Eugen Pavel's reaction:" [It] could be detailed with references about first manmade glass pieces produced in Mesopotamia and Egypt at ~ 3,000 BC."