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Breakthrough in Blue Lasers Yields 10X Write Times

The highest capacity optical storage devices and DVD recorders all use blue lasers -- and offer only poky write times in the range of 2X to 4X. New high-powered blue lasers could change that in a hurry

Nichia Corp. of Japan has broken the speed record for writing Blu-ray discs.
The company has announced a new blue-violet laser that can fill up a 54GB double-layer disc at more than 10X record speed. Currently shipping Blu-ray and HD-DVD format disc recorders are mostly of the 2X variety, though a few can boast 4X speed.

The difference from today’s 2X record times to 10X, based on future availability of the high-speed lasers, will be remarkable, according to blue laser expert Steven DenBaars, professor of materials and co-director of the Solid-State Lighting Center at the University of California Santa Barbara. As an example, today’s 2X blue-laser-based DVD recorders require about 50 minutes to write a disc containing a full-length DVD movie, DenBaars said, while a 10X laser could accomplish the task in about 10 minutes.view site

Sharp ships HD recorder with 1TB of storage

Sharp Corp. today announced five new models of its AQUOS HD recorders, including a model with a 1,000GB (1TB) hard drive. Three of the new models come with a built-in high-speed infrared system that allows the fast transfer of photographs from mobile phones and digital cameras to be displayed on large-screen AQUOS LCD TVs.

The high-definition recorders also allow users to simultaneously record two programs in full-spec HD from an AQUOS LCD TV. All models also have a quick activation function that allows users to activate a recorder from the standby mode in only .08 seconds, which Sharp claims is an industry first.

The new models are being introduced first into the Japanese market this month.view site

64 DVDs on a disc: holographic storage to ship

InPhase Technologies Inc. announced today it will start bulk shipments of the industry's first holographic disc drive this July in a format able to store 300GB of uncompressed data on a single platter. That capacity will expand to 1.6TB per disc within three years, the company said. The initial Tapestry HDS-300R holographic disc drives shipped in December to beta users.

he Tapestry HDS-300R, which is the first rev of the product, will use a write-once format suited to regulatory agencies and is aimed strictly at the archival market for industries such as IT, health sciences, government agencies and professional video recording. InPhase plans to come to market with a re-writable format disc by the end of 2008.view