08-23-2007, 04:53 AM
Quote:True, there are some technologies that have been on the back burner for a while. Crystalographic drives is a good example where you can store 250 TB of data in a crystalline cube that is a quarter inch on a side. This has been around since the early 90s, but it has real issues with shock as the data is stored in the atomic bonds in the crystalline lattice. Even a small variation in how the lasers are pointed will wipe a drive clean of data.
But right now, protein platters seem to be making a big in road, not just in the removable disk market, but also in the hard disk market. The ability to store data at such high densities makes for some interesting possibilities for data centers and information warehousing.
Thinking more about the issue of the next generation of storage has me torn. On one hand I think a lot of technology (science for that matter) is done for the sake of science alone. But on the other hand, more often than not its necessity that lights the fire that makes technology spill into the main stream. But in this case, really where is the fire?
I'm sure I'll be looking back at this post sooner than I expect and thinking, god did I really say that? But here goes:
What real market is there going to be for large capacity discs in the foreseeable future? 100+ Gig video games are possible if you bump texture quality higher, but there's still significant bottle necks to displaying all those textures at once. The hardware bottlenecks that aren't likely to resolve themselves before more space is needed. 100+ gig movies? Hrm. Not until 'high def' goes through the roof. The only market I can see is for TV series to be released on one disc. Putting all seasons of Seinfeld on one disc would certainly call for some monstrous storage.
Internal HD's are already at 1TB (what are they up to now, +200 gig plus single platters?). Solid State drives promise more reliable backup than their spinning counterparts, and better long term storage than plastic cds/dvds/hddvds/blu-rays.
All of this is to say, I give up on speculating on the future technology. I don't think the need for a new data storage type will come soon enough, and with the fast (and set-back haunted) pace of technology these days the next true storage may be something entirely incomprehensible to me at this date.
Cheers,
Munk
PS. I'm getting old - I still can't get over how cool the idea of a blue laser is!:P