With Blu-ray and HD-DVD still not yet on the market, six Japanese companies led by Fuji and Optware have launched yet another HD format.
HVD – the Holographic Versatile Disc – utilizes holographic light interference patterns to encode data. The result is a DVD-sized disc that holds 200 times more data than a DVD – as much as 1TB - and can be read at over 1Gb/s – more than 40 times as fast as DVD throughput.
Optware's approach uses a colinear system - essentially, the reference and read laser beams are projected along the same axis rather than at an angle through a single objective lens. The upshot is a much simpler system that's better suited to disc media, is smaller and more compatible with DVDs and CDs.
In March, the TC44 working group of the Geneva-based Ecma International standards defining body will meet for the first time to commence the process of defining a standard implementation of HVD, including a 200GB cartridge-based 'HVD-RW' disc and a 100GB 'HVD-ROM' product.
For more information, visit www.fuji.com.
