History 2002: Library with Over 10,000 DVDs

Swisstorage, based in Neuchatel, Switzerland, markets some of the largest optical jukeboxes in existence. Its DVD-5000 can hold up to 5,775 DVD disks and 160 drives, while the DVD-10000 takes 10,500 disks and 320 drives.

With double-sided 9.4GB DVDs, this translates to maximum capacity of nearly 99TB.

These devices, originally conceived by Alp Electronics, are comprised of a media wall stacked in piles of 200 media in front of which a robot that travels both horizontally and vertically may grab disks by their central hole, avoiding any contact with the tracks. The robot can also flip the disk over. Average time for loading a disk into a drive was announced at 15s.

No prices have yet been indicated.

For the moment, Swisstorage has sold only 2 of its jukeboxes, one to the Belgian national radio, HTBF, the second to Belgische Rundfunk (BRF), both for storing 6,000 audio CDs.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 168 on January 2002 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.