Hitachi Maxell Develops 940GB SVOD Cartridge (Link)

940 GB capacity cartridge accommodating 100 prototype discs

April 19th 2006, Hitachi Maxell has announced the development of an optical storage technology "stacked volumetric optical discs (SVOD)" that can boost per-volume capacity by using a film-type disc medium with a thickness of 92 μm.

Based on the new technology, the company has succeeded in the development of a high-capacity optical storage system having 940 GB by accommodating 100 newly developed discs in a dedicated cartridge (thickness: 6.5 cm; width: 13.3 cm; depth: 16.1 cm).


94GB thin optical disc including two 92 μm thick discs bonded with each other

The company plans to commercialize SVOD as early as the beginning of 2007. The target price is set at ¥40,000 (US $351.66) or lower for a cartridge holding 100 discs. Although the system is mainly targeted for commercial use, Norio Ota, Fellow and Chief Engineer of Hitachi Maxell commented; "It is possible that the product will be provided for consumer use, too." The technology can also be applied to the next-generation optical disc that utilizes a blue-violet laser. In that case, the capacity that can be achieved by using a cartridge with 100 discs reaches 3 to 5 TB.

Read Also:
Hitachi Maxell Press Release (Japanese)
Hitachi Maxell Press Release (Google Translated)
Hitachi Maxell Develops New Optical Storage Technology Enabling Approx. 1 TB Capacity with 6.5 cm thick Cartridge (Tech-On!)
Hitachi Maxell 1TB SVOD optical disc cart (Engadget)
Thinnest DVD Discs with terabyte-level storage (Preview Gadgets)