Holographic storage has been on the radar for a while. Very promising technology that is sure to change the world of storage when it does enter the market.  The specs are impressive: 1.6 TB (as in 1600 GB) of storage with transfer rates of 120 MBPS with a 50+ year media archive life and random data access. The media is expected to have the lowest cost per gigabyte of any commercial quality removable storage. So today, when I ran into these two articles, I was once again hopeful that the much talked about launch date of 2006 could become a reality.

1) Maxell in a joint venture with InPhase Technologies has announced the release of a Holographic optical recording device. The first generation of holographic media with 300 GB of storage capacity and a 20 MBPs Transfer Rate is scheduled for release in late 2006.

2) "Turner Entertainment Networks has its lenses focused on holographic storage for the future of storing and retrieving its movies, cartoons and commercial spots. The network giant has completed a test of the cutting-edge storage technology, which it said will soon move the company away from tape- and disk-based storage." So they have a working prototype, nice!!

If all this does work out, I really could not care less about the Blu-ray vs HD DVD battle that is currently raging for the future of the storage market. Holographic media has them beaten hands down.