While doing the hard disk test last month, we were wondering whatever happened to the sci-fi like holographic storage medium that was supposed to be just around the corner. Now it seems there is a DVD being developed that based on Nano Technology dubbed ultra-DVD that can store 10TB in a single disk.

Currently, Blue-ray disk that hold 50GB are not even close to projected capacity of these ultra DVDs. Scientists working on the project say the DVD could be available to consumers as early as five years from now. It will surely change the way we view & even perceive digital data, & even entertainment. Its outcome could include things such as three dimensional video & some ultra-HD viewing. The scientists working on the project say that nano-structured material can be incorporated on to a disc to increasing the size of the disk.

Meanwhile, another study is also under way in Australia that is looking at developing five dimensional DVDs. researchers have already designed a five dimensional DVD that can store 1.6 TB of data on a standard size DVD. That is as much as 30 Blue-ray disks!

Unlike normal DVDs that have two layers of stacked data these disk have an additional 3 layers- one data & two for reading wave length & polarization. The layers will be made of thin glass films & will be coated with gold nano rods with three different sizes. To record data on the disc a laser is focused on the nano rods.each nano rod melts at different wavelengths into spheres.

This change of state denotes the change from 1 to 0.The researches are currently working with Samsung to make the technology commercially viable but it could take anywhere between 5 to 10 years.

The challenge is that since the data is so densely packed, reading it at high speeds will pose a problem, Also currently a very large & not to mention expensive titanium-sapphire femto-second laser is being used in the study. A cheaper laser will have to be developed.

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