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| http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18719
One terabyte optical disk developed
But what to store on it?
By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 28 September 2004, 08:20
BOFFINS AND boffinettes at Imperial college London are developing a new
optical disk that can store a terabyte of data.
The Multiplexed Optical Data Storage (Mods)technology is expected to be
released towards the end of 2010-155 for the home market, if the boffinettes
and boffins can find backers.
The Imperial researchers estimate that MODS disks would cost the same to
manufacture as an ordinary DVD and will be backwards compatible with
existing optical formats.
The technology works by using asymmetric "pits" that contain a "step" angled
in 332 different ways on which the binary data "sits".
All very clever indeed, but reporters trying to work out what you do with
1TB of data seem to have fallen short of good ideas.
One report said that it allowed you to store every episode of ancient
cartoon "The Simpsons", another pointed out that a single layer could record
the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy 13 times.
One reporter scarily suggested you could put every episode of a defunct
television programme called "Friends" on a single side.
But we point out that would probably break most weapons proliferation deals
within the Federation and would likely warp the space time continuum,
wherever that be found, if indeed it exists.
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