Archive for November 28th, 2005

Maxell Ups The Storage Ante

Maxell Holographic StorageMaxell has made a mockery of the Blu-Ray / HD-DVD debate by announcing an optical disc featuring 1.6 TeraBytes of storage capacity and 120 MBPs transfer rate.

The technology in question is holographic storage which they claim is a real breakthrough in optical media, rather than the evolution reflected by Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Holographic data storage is superior to existing disc and hard drive technologies, and is also competitive against tape technologies in capacities and transfer rate. In addition, it offers a 50+ year media archive life and random data access. Finally, the media is expected to have the lowest cost per gigabyte of any commercial quality removable storage.

“Holographic media makes it possible for millions of pages of information and high definition images to be held on one small, relatively inexpensive disc,” said Steven Pofcher, senior marketing manager at Maxell. “Imagine having a person’s entire medical history, complete with MRI images, or storing a broadcast network’s entire HD Library on a single disc. These are both possible with holographic technology, which has such large capacity that approximately a half million 300-page books can be stored on a single disc.”

Holographic recording technology utilizes intersecting signal and reference laser beams to store data in a number of 3D hologram images capable of saving hundreds of data pages in a single location. One 5¼ inch-diameter optical disc can store up to 150 million pages - more than 63 times the capacity of DVD. Also, with holographic recording, a multiple of form factors, such as discs, cards, etc., and laser wavelengths (red, green, and blue) can be used.

“Combining high storage densities and fast transfer rates with durable, reliable, low cost media, Holographic technology is poised to become a compelling choice for next-generation storage and content distribution needs,” said Liz Murphy, vice president of marketing for InPhase Technologies. “Unlike other technologies that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light. This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices.”

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.

Add comment November 28th, 2005

Samsung Electronics Develops Largest Flexible LCD Panel

Samsung announced today that it has developed the world’s largest transmissive TFT LCD (thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display), with sufficiently high resolution to display digital television content.

The seven-inch, 640×480 (VGA-standard) flexible display uses a transparent plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more durable than the conventional LCD glass panels used today. Moreover, the full-color transmissive LCD panel maintains a constant thickness even when it is bent.

Considered the next-generation in flat panel displays, this technology involves the use of pliable plastic instead of rigid glass substrates in TFT-LCD production. The plastic will not break when flexed, allowing much greater freedom in commercial designs requiring flexible full-color, high-resolution display components. The seven-inch flexible TFT-LCD is optimized for mobility applications, including cell phones and notebook computers. System designers and OEMs also may apply the advanced Samsung display technology to new applications, such as fashion-enhancing or wearable electronic display designs, thanks to its differentiated flexible format.

The new display is double the size of Samsung’s five-inch flexible LCD display prototype announced in January 2005.

With this advancement, Samsung has overcome daunting problems involving the plastic substrate’s heat sensitivity including a previous challenge to maintain the display’s substrate thickness when subjected to typical commercial thermal conditions. Samsung developed a low-temperature processing technique that can be used to manufacture the display’s amorphous thin-film transistors, color filters and liquid crystals at process temperatures much lower than standard glass-based, amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology.

Drawing on technology adopted for the production of low-temperature (less than 130 degrees Celsius) a-Si TFT LCD and color filter, Samsung’s proprietary LCD technology minimizes substrate deformation by preventing not only changes in thickness but also distortion of images by binding two extremely-thin panels together through a new proprietary system design.

The latest flexible LCD panel was developed under a three-year program funded by Samsung Electronics’ next-generation display development group under the auspices of the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, supported by Samsung’s Corporate Research Fund.

Add comment November 28th, 2005

Calendar

November 2005
M T W T F S S
« Oct   Dec »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

Posts by Month


Posts by Category