Sharp launches a 100-gigabyte optical disc

Sharp launches a 100-gigabyte optical disc

Japanese electronics giant Sharp has announced that they have developed technology to improve the storage capacities of optical discs to almost 100 GB. This capacity is more than 20 times the storage limits of current generation DVDs and double the capacities promised by new generation HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

The capacities provided in this technology can store up to nine hours of high-definition video footage making it an excellent choice for professionals working in video technology field. However, like many other new technical developments, it would take sometime before the product can be made available commercially for the retail market.

The technology uses an enhanced version of the Blu-Ray discs being promoted by the entertainment giant Sony along with its supporters like Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and others. They are competing with another group led by Toshiba to develop the next generation DVD format, which can store much more data than the DVDs of today.

Sharp calls this product a “super-resolution functional film” and this latest product from their stables contains two layers of storage capacity. The disc is not compatible with the Blu-Ray standards laid down by the Sony group and hence is unreadable by the drives developed for the format. Sharp has however announced that they can tweak their product to suit the standards decided upon by the Blu-ray Disc Association.