DVD could hold 1000 Gigabyte of data

[bloodhound]

From BBC News:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3696306.stm

 

"Imperial College London researchers in the UK are developing a new way of storing data that could lead to discs capable of holding 1,000 gigabytes.

 

Current discs carry one bit of data per pit. But the researchers say that by using angled ridges in the pits, they can alter the way light behaves.

 

The end result is a way of encoding and detecting up to 10 times more information from one pit."

[Edisonian]

That's great! I can't wait to get a couple of those.

 

[5614]

1,000GB aka 1TB [terra-byte]

 

not out till 2010 or 2015 [depending in the source]

 

there's some other random disk, well random name, cant remember it, which is coming out in about 2005 which will hold quite a bit more than DVDs, but when these come out, will soon become out of date.

[badchad]

I thought I read somewhere that Bill Gates predicted the DVD to be obsolete in 10 years. Sounds reasonable to me. IMO I consider the "modern" age of computers began in 1995 with win. 95. Now it's 2004 and the CD-ROM and floppy are about done.

[5614]

CD-ROMs are still very popular, DVD disks are becoming popular.

 

even when the new disks come out, old CDs and DVDs will still be used because the newer stuff will cost more, and there is not always a need to store 1TB when a few GB will do.

[badchad]

Agreed, CD-ROMS are still quite functional. It will be a little while until DVD disks are absolutely needed. My only point though, is that in searching Dell's website, only the cheapest comp. ($499) contains a CD-ROM. All the others have DVD.

[5614]

but not everybody can write to DVDs, whilsts DVDs are getting popular, only the new good computers can make em, CDs are still the main thing at the moment. DVDs are almost there.

DVDs still have a long time. [there time hasnt really properly started yet].

[bloodhound]

what are u on about? dvds are already there, and have started to push the cds to sidelines

[drz]

I think 5614 is talking about Blue Ray discs, which are slated to replace the DVD.

 

I could use a TB dvd, to think one could carry a library, a radio station, an arcade and theater on one cd is just mind boggling.

[5614]

DVDs havent fully taken off in this respect:

 

most computers which werent bought with in the last year or so cannot play them.

until about 6 months ago, unless you bought a very expensive computer you would not have the ability to write a DVD

 

for those two reasons, unless you have a modern or updated computer, you cannot write to a DVD and possibly cannot read one either.

however now videos are being replaced by DVDs, however DVD players and especially writters are more expensive than videos and as many people have all their films stored on videos they do not want a DVD writer/player.

 

some games are now coming out on DVD disks, but not all, some games are still coming out on multiple 'normal' CDs... why? because not everyone can play DVDs.

 

looking in shops DVDs are evidently the new thing, however the old videos and CDs are still everywhere.

i may add at this point that i can play and write to DVDs, i am merely pointing out that, whilsts i and probably you can - not everybody has this ability.

 

whilsts looking in shops DVDs are common, videos and CDs are still everywhere.

[MulderMan]

I read that in new scientist this morning, they said the blue-disk will be obsolete before it even takes off. looks like this is the way to go!

[5614]

well, in a sense, the reason for that is because blue-disks come out in 2005 it will take a few years to take off, by which time the new 1000GB or 1TB disks will be coming out.

this will mean new reading and writting drives to replace the old CD-RW and DVD-RW drives.

[MulderMan]

I think that most people will still keep hanging on to there floppys and cd's. like alot of people i know still use floppys because they think its a waste of space to put a 10kb word doc on a 700mb cd, even i do it.

[5614]

i use floppy disks for word documents. the thing is this: all text documents will fit onto a floppy disk.

however once you have images, you need a few small MB, a CD is too big for this, so ZIP disks were invented but never took off because of CDs.

USB 'pens' are a good and popular idea, you can carry images in a thing smaller than a floppy disk.

 

i mean, realsiticly, how is every going to need 1TB disk???

maybe a game company, but no one else.

[bloodhound]

haha. i laugh at u 5614. in ages before pple were probably asking who needs 700MB of disk capacity. nowdays we have usb flash memory capable to holding upto 2 gigs.

[MulderMan]

i use floppy disks for word documents. the thing is this: all text documents will fit onto a floppy disk.

however once you have images' date=' you need a few small MB, a CD is too big for this, so ZIP disks were invented but never took off because of CDs.

USB 'pens' are a good and popular idea, you can carry images in a thing smaller than a floppy disk.

 

i mean, realsiticly, how is every going to need 1TB disk???

[i']maybe a game company, but no one else.[/i]

 

take your hard drive with you?

[5614]

haha. i laugh at u 5614. in ages before pple were probably asking who needs 700MB of disk capacity. nowdays we have usb flash memory capable to holding upto 2 gigs.

then your stupid or just dont understand what i meant.

i mean' date=' realsiticly, how is every going to need 1TB disk???

[i']maybe a game company, but no one else.

[/i]

 

what i meant by that was that, if you are backing up you HDD or something, then you may need a 1TB disk, if you are making a game you may need a 1TB disk, but to transfer an image, or a document or a powerpoint presentation you will not need 1TB, whilsts they have uses such as storing games on and backing up HDDs they will not be needed by everyday people in everyday use.

 

i see what you mean with your "ages ago ppl thought who needs 700MB?" but whilsts games can get bigger, a basic image or document cannot get much bigger and for that purpose CDs are fine.

maybe these 1TB disks should replace DVDs as far as films are concerned, however, DVD disks hold a film of perfect quality.

but 1TB disks replacing DVDs as far as holding computer data is concerned, is not really a needed upgrade for home users [other than possibly backing up a HDD and storing games]

and if their only use is to store games, whos going to buy the drives to play them with? it would be a waste of money, if not many people have the drives, then the game companies wont produce onto the disks in the first place.

 

mulderman: external HDDs are used for that purpose, however USB keys are a lot smaller!

[MulderMan]

o i meant that in a backup sense!

[Sayonara]

i mean' date=' realsiticly, how is every going to need 1TB disk???

[i']maybe a game company, but no one else.[/i]

Digital artists, musicians, system administrators, network administrators, anyone who uses 3D applications, CAD, DV editing suites, or any other software that produces large production files.

[DoorNumber1]

I have a DVD-RW in my G5, and I have yet to use it. Why? Well, I just don't need to transfer that much info at a time! Truthfully, I'm happy for my DVD burner because I can, in theory, back up quite a bit of information. But for everyday use, the most I'll need is a CD to back things up.

 

I think Sayonara hit the nail on the head though; some people would need more. There are tons of applications (mostly multimedia things) where one might like to transfer much more than a DVD might hold.

 

What I would like to see is a study done that collects stats on the average amount of data transferred to/from the average home computer computer, the way it gets there, and what it's used for. I think such data would be quite enlightening, and I would predict that the largest items would be media files that still fall within size range of CDs or DVDs. Most uses would be rather small, and transerred through non-physical means.

[Sayonara]

5614 may have a point though, I mean most people working in industries that require them to move massive amounts of data will be using dockable hard drives.

 

I would expect though that as with virtually every hardware advance in computing, we won't come up with most of our uses for 1Tb discs until after they are available (and cheap )

[5614]

once they are available and cheap, some people will buy them just to show off.

 

the few who do NEED them will already have methods of doing so, such as external HDDs.

 

maybe this is just advancing for technologie's sake. we have the ability, although it may not be widely used by everyday people, there will always be exceptions, the companies may as well make the disks, so that they get publicity, everyone will want one, just to be cool!

it will probably be a accessory and not really a needed thing.

[RICHARDBATTY]

Its all about sales. If you don't advance technology, theres no reason for people to buy new apart from wear. The new stuff is usualy two steps ahead and sat on a shelf while the marketing department trys to convince everyone they need the previous models features. Then when everyone has those features they phase out the old stuff and get the next one off the shelf so you feel like everything you own is out of date again. I worked for one of the more expensive audio equipment manufactuers for a while and I saw this. You would not believe the difference in the tech between what they were pushing in the shops and what they had waiting around. What made me laugh was that they displayed some of the future stuff in the entrance hall so you could see the stuff you're about to buy was out of date before you bought it.

[Rasori]

...Personally, I don't trust floppys. They lose their configuration info too often. I used to use them for some text documents because one of my computers doesn't have a CD-RW Drive, but now I have a portable hard drive, so there's no need.

 

But someday people will probably have empty towers placed amongst their office, home, and anywhere else they go to often, so all they have to do is pop in a disk and they've got their usual configuration all loaded up. Helps for the not-so-computer-saavy people, since they get used to their setup at work and then have no clue how to run the computer at home

 

Yeah... pointless post.

[5614]

i've never had problems with floppy disks.

 

one thing i do like about floppy disks is how you cant just pop em into the drive and use them immediately, whereas for CDs and DVDs you have to wait for the drive to open - then close - then read the CD, which in itself takes a small bit of time.... whereas floppy disks are effectively instantaneous.