Memory…..what are we going to deal with?

When we go thru the history of computers, we can see the developments in the speed of computing and the increases in amount of data which can be stored were the key. All the other developments and changes used high speed CPU and more memory storage capacity of computers.

I have used floppy disk drives of 360 KB, which was of the size of a notebook. Now a small piece of plastic, which looks like a key chain can store 1 GB !!! The first hard disk I saw was 20 MB (have you heard of IBM’s 5 MB RAMAC hard disk ?) and now the minimum configuration starts with 120 GB.

Well, what are the new technologies for future ? I am not talking about tomorrow- it may be blue ray discs and other technologies, we are looking at day after tomorrow – when we start storing data in holographic disc or on a molecular memory.

Another reason why we need to look for another technologies is, we are fast approaching the max limits of storing data on magnetic media or on the surface of a optical disc(due to the diffraction limited size of the writing beams) In a holographic memory, the volume of the media is being used – not the surface. Yes…it is 3 D.

Just to have an idea how much of data we can hold…A disc can hold 3.9 Tera Byte. That is almost 6000 time more data of a CD ROM or 800 times more data of a DVD …or 150 times more data of a blue ray disk!!!!! Yes….you can store almost 8000 Hrs of Video (ie : taking to account of a CD ROM can hold 70 mins video, in normal compression)

(PS: Hey..movie lovers…hold on….don’t be so happy…. There are some more for you….when you start watching movie in the new Ultra High Definition Video or UHDV format one hour movie needs 11.5 tera byte!!!! Yes…you will still have multiple disks to play around with – only if you are true movie lover, who don’t want to comprise on quality. So, when you have more storage, the quality of the video and audio can be shoot up. I am working on a article about UHDV, which will be published soon)

NOTE :: This document is not complte…rest of the part (how holographic memory works. blue laser, red laser etc will be discussed later. hold on..stay glued…)