DVD is dead, long live ‘Super DVD’.
According to a new article in Nature magazine, Chinese researchers have been able to create a DVD-like disc with hundreds of layers – extending the disc capacity to the petabit level.
Researchers at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology published their results a few days ago. Using a 54-nanometer laser, the team managed to record hundreds of layers of data onto an optical disk, with each tier of the three-dimensional stack separated by just one micrometer.
The result is an optical data storage (ODS) solution of DVD size with a capacity of 1.6 petabits – which translates to approximately 200 terabytes (Tb) or 200,000 gigabytes (Gb).
To put that in perspective a regular DVD holds just 4.7 Gb on a single layer, a Blu-ray is 25Gb (single layer) or 50Gb (dual layer), and a 4K UHD disc maxes out with a multi-layered disc of 100Gb. A film like “Blade Runner 2049” on UHD clocks in at a file size of around 70Gb.
This would mean a single disc capable of holding thousands of 4K feature-length movies. Such technology is being seen as a potential game changer for archivists and large datacenters.
The advancement also comes at time when retailers are either scaling back or outright doing away with their physical media offerings.
