VMO Systems Assigned Patent, Storage Veteran Steve Volk Involved

VMO Systems, Inc., Boulder, CO, has been assigned a patent (8,315,144) developed by Jerry E. Hurst Jr., Boulder Creek, CA, Neil Deeman, Alamo, CA, and Steven B. Volk, Boulder, CO, for a "small form factor optical disc drive for use in mobile electronic device."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A small form factor disc drive is structured to hold and play an optical data storage disc measuring approximately 32 million in diameter and containing 1GB of data per layer. The disc drive contains a blue wavelength laser, an objective lens having a numerical aperture in the range of 0.70-0.78 and conventional DVD-compatible controller electronics. This unique combination of elements allows a full-length movie or a video game to be displayed with DVD-quality on a cell phone or other portable hand held device."

The patent application was filed on Nov. 24, 2008 (12/313,773).

Comments

Steve Volk is a big name in the storage history, being involved in innovative small form factors for several HDDs and ODDs even if all his ventures finally failed.

He founded Vmedia Research Inc. in 2002 and serves as its chairman and CEO is responsible for setting the strategic vision and charter. He founded DPHI, Inc. (also known as DataPlay, Inc.) in 1998 and served as its chairman and CEO. He is a well known entrepreneur and has founded several storage technology companies over the course of his career. In 1990, he founded Intégral Peripherals, Inc., which invented the first 1.8-inch HDD used in notebooks, tablet PCs and mobile consumer electronic devices. He was also a founder of PrairieTek where he was responsible for the introduction of the 2.5-inch HDD form factor, the dominant storage device in today's notebook computers. Prior to PrairieTek, he founded TallGrass Technologies, a tape and disk subsystem storage company.