Sony ships first 23 GByte blue laser PDD media
 

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Sony ships first 23 GByte blue laser PDD media

By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor

April 26, 2004 - 11:59 EST

Park Ridge (NJ) - Sony announced that it has shipped its first Professional Disc for DATA (PDD) media. Using blue-violet lasers, the new format offers a capacity of 23.3 GByte capacity per single-sided disc.

Sony's PDD media take advantage of shorter wavelength provided by a blue-violet laser and a high-performance lens to write up to four times more data on a disc than what is possible with red laser-based CD, DVD and magneto optical (MO) technologies. According to the company, the technology focuses on business applications to off a high-end back-up and storage solution especially for medical imaging, broadcast, audio/video editing, graphic design and enterprise content management.


While PDD media use a blue laser similar to Blu-ray technology, the two are disparate formats targeted at different markets. In contrast to PDD, Blu-ray is a consumer recording technology that is available only in Japan for now. PDD and Blu-ray discs are not interchangeable.

PDD media are characterized by a narrower track pitch than CD, DVD and MO technologies. The track pitch of an optical disc can compared to line spacing on a sheet of paper - where narrower spacing results in more information capacity. According to Sony, PDD media are designed for durability in anti-static polycarbonate resin cartridges that cover the discs, protecting them from damage and data loss or errors during the write/read process. The company estimates that PDD media have a lifespan of over 50 years and can be rewritten more than 10,000 times.

Second-generation PDD technology is expected in 2005, featuring a 50GByte storage capacity on a single-sided, double layer disc with a transfer rate of 18 MByte/s. Scheduled for release in 2007, third-generation PDD drives and media are projected to reach a 100GB storage capacity using double-sided media and a
transfer rate of 36 MByte/s.

PDD media are available for about $45 for both the write-once version and the rewritable version.

It might be a bit ironic from my side but:

1. 160GB HDDs now cost about 100$
2. They are in metal cases protected from dust and light and you can right/erase as much as you want
3. Their transfer rate reaches up to 60MB/s (average 30MB/s)

But it's nice to hear about the new wonders of the technology!

P.S. don't get too serious with my post :))

True. It's even better than that. I bought a bunch of good 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB buffer Western Digital drives for $50, after
rebates. HDDs aren't particularly road-worthy, so I'll assume their life span is as good as a CD-R, which now is about two years.

This PDD media should eventually cost $1-5, so I'm excited
they're out there as the next step for data on a disk.