back to article Science! Luminescent nanocrystals could lead to multi-PB optical discs

Australian researchers have managed to store information on light-emitting nanocrystals, and they reckon a cubic-centimetre chunk of the stuff could hold a petabyte of data. The base tech is described in "Towards rewritable multilevel optical data storage in single nanocrystals" in Optical Express. It hinges on the …

  1. Ben Bonsall

    "But then the disc's rotation speed has to be super-constant and the read:write head movement super-precise so that the positioning, depth and timing of head laser firing can match the nanocrystal sizing and layering."

    Why spin the disc? Have a flat square that the head can move across, or better, have the head mounted so the read/write point is scanned by adjusting the optics, rather then move the disc or the head. Or am I missing something?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe make it a drum (or "ring" sized) instead? That should also be simple-ish to have a constant speed, and allows for fairly rugged construction.

      eg put the data on the inside surface of the ring, where it's unlike to be damaged from poor handling.

      Bonus - Also allows fun marketing slogans... "One ring to rule them all!"

    2. Christoph

      I'd expect that there would be a lot of feedback involved in the positioning. Given the quantities involved you could use something that would otherwise be far too expensive. For instance, given the insane accuracy in gravitational wave detectors, you might be able to make something similar but far cruder that would be affordable in massive quantities. (And given the rate of increase in stored data, the quantities would be massive!)

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "Why spin the disc? "

      Because it's a shitload easier than moving the optics or using mirrors to move the beams accurately in 3 dimensions.

      1. Jaybus

        "Because it's a shitload easier than moving the optics or using mirrors to move the beams accurately in 3 dimensions"

        Not necessarily. TI's MEMS micro-mirror devices (DLP) could be used to scan in 2D. The researchers seem to be planning on MLC encoding for the third dimension. This would require moving nothing, other than the micro-mirrors internal to the DLP chip. Of course, it would then make more sense to use a compact rectangle, rather than compact disc.

    4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "Have a flat square that the head can move across"

      Probably even more complicated. The head has to be stopped and then restarted in the opposite direction at the end of each scan. The need for accuracy of positioning doesn't go away. Scanning by adjusting a small element of the optics would only allow a small area to be scanned and is probably better employed in making fine adjustments. Above all, however, spinning disks and radial head movements are a well established technology in storage mechanisms.

  2. LeoP

    Or just forget the Multi-PB stuff ...

    ... and create a cheap 40TB medium. Could actually be quite usefull.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. jarfil

    Make it 80TB

    A CD/DVD/BD disk has about 80cm2 of data area, but the data layer is barely 100-200nm thick.

    Still, with 1PB/cm3 and a layer thickness of 10um, an 80TB disk should be possible.

    Make it cheaper, and even just 1TB disks would be nice.

  5. Sean o' bhaile na gleann

    From the report:

    ...Multilevel encoding, conceptually similar to 2bits/cell and 3bits/cell flash, may be feasible "by discretizing the level of valence state switching by adjusting the UV-C intensity for the conversion"....

    I think my brain just exploded...

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "by discretizing the level of valence state switching"

      Yeah, that just blew the grammatorium section of my brain too!

    2. Cuddles

      ...Multilevel encoding, conceptually similar to 2bits/cell and 3bits/cell flash, may be feasible "by discretizing the level of valence state switching by adjusting the UV-C intensity for the conversion"....

      ...which counterpoints the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the Vogonosity...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I hope this is impractical. NAND is so nice. I'd rather clumsy optical discs not make a comeback.

    1. Mage Silver badge

      NAND is so nice

      Not for removable archive storage!

      Bubble memory was a nice idea.

      This is complementary to NAND.

      Also may be more stable that writeable DVD/CD which easily "fade". Pressed DVDs can be archival, I doubt writeable DVDs are stable.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Re: I doubt writeable DVDs are stable

        Well, my first CD burned in 1992 is still perfectly readable - although the programs I stored on it at the time are now completely useless.

        1. wayward4now
          Trollface

          Re: I doubt writeable DVDs are stable

          ...and that drive how much???

      2. Justin Clift

        Re: NAND is so nice

        > I doubt writeable DVDs are stable.

        M-DISC is widely available these days, and caters to those needing archival quality storage.

      3. DuncanLarge Silver badge

        Re: NAND is so nice

        "I doubt writeable DVDs are stable."

        General purpose ones, probably not.

        But the M-Disc versions use a very different type of recording layer (not organic). This is true of most bd-r discs too (as long as it dont say LTL on the packaging). These are certainly much better for archival.

    2. DuncanLarge Silver badge

      "I'd rather clumsy optical discs not make a comeback."

      Er how are optical discs clumsy excactly?

      USB flash is much more clumsy. The USB connector only fits one way, resulting in funny memes. The flash chip can die losing all the data at once. The thing runs firmware that can be programmed to act as a keyboard, ever heard of badUSB? They stick out of the USB port, flapping in the breeze until you fall asleep, roll over and snap them off :D

      The biggest annoyance i have with usb flash drives is they come in weird shapes and dont stack!

      The only thing i like about them is they can be fucking fast and fit nicely in a pocket. But i wont expect one to hold data as long as i would expect optical discs.

  7. Alan Brown Silver badge

    "NAND is so nice. I'd rather clumsy optical discs not make a comeback."

    It'd be funny if this ends up being the HAMR-beater.

  8. Mage Silver badge
    Boffin

    Why DVD size?

    The 3.5" floppy has a shuttered case and designed to go in a pocket. Far more sensible than DVD style packaging. Not a new idea either. The 3.5" MO disks in 1990s were a little thicker than floppies, but far better than Zip disks. They were brilliant. Just too expensive and got left behind on the storage capacity.

    Though there was originally a cartridge with shutter for CDs. I still have some of the re-usable cases and a drive somewhere.

    1. GBE

      Re: Why DVD size?

      The 3.5" floppy has a shuttered case and designed to go in a pocket. Far more sensible than DVD style packaging.

      IIRC, whith the first CD drive I used (a bulky, Sun branded SCSI thing), the CDs were in shuttered hardshell cases similar to 3.5" floppys. They were pretty bullet-proof, but people voted with their wallets, and they died off very quickly.

  9. onefang

    Sweeeet,

    petabyte sugar cubes. Just be very careful when you have your first coffee in the morning.

    1. onefang
      Coat

      Re: Sweeeet,

      "petabyte sugar cubes. Just be very careful when you have your first coffee in the morning."

      Coz the DR is a pain in the arse.

  10. DuncanLarge Silver badge

    Babylon 5

    I have always been hoping for something like this that could give us those holographic data crystals they used to use on babylon 5.

    1. Keith Langmead
      Thumb Up

      Re: Babylon 5

      So glad I wasn't the only one thinking of B5 while reading that! :)

  11. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. earl grey
    Paris Hilton

    my pron is waiting

    bring it on she said.

  13. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Didn't the IBM R&D division...

    ...come up with something like this years and years ago? I'm certain there were tech news stories about "data crystals" at least 10 years if not 20 years ago.

    A cursory Google isn't showing the story in the first few pages of results because it's full of stories about quartz crystal storage from a couple years ago touting 300 million year storage longevity.

    These seems to be a perennial story that never seems to actually come to anything viable. A bit like fusion power and flying cars. I'd love to be proved wrong in my life time!

    1. Trollslayer

      Re: Didn't the IBM R&D division...

      I imagine crystal scanners are difficult and crystals that get handled would become very difficult to read even then.

    2. wayward4now
      Linux

      Re: Didn't the IBM R&D division...

      We might not have flying cars yet, but we could all wear togas and winged sandals. Jus' saying.

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