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Sony Develops Powerful Laser for 1TB Optical Disc

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 54 comments

Let's hope Sony doesn't get the idea of attaching these things onto sharks.

The Blu-ray Disc Association may have just passed the BDXL specification that expands that capacity of Blu-ray media to 100GB, but the real roomy optical format of the future is being developed in a lab in Japan right now.

Sony and Tohoku University have created a laser that has a beam output that's in excess of 100 watts, which is more than a hundred times the world’s highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers.

This latest successful development is an all-semiconductor laser picosecond pulse source with a laser wavelength of 405 nanometers (1 nm = one-billionth of a meter) in the blue-violet region. It is capable of generating optical pulses in the ultrafast duration of 3 picoseconds (1 picosecond = one-trillionth of a second), with ultrahigh output peak power of 100 watts and repetition frequency of 1 gigahertz.

What's even more remarkable, boasts Sony, is that that other ultra high-output laser devices require a bulky light source box and a specialist technician to ensure the stable operation of the laser. This technology, however allows for a much smaller lightbox and perhaps for a more automated process. 

Sony said that it has already tested applying this technology in next-generation large-capacity optical disc-storage, which could mean capacities 20 times greater than what we have now.

This laser technology could also be applied to a wide range of fields such as three-dimensional (3D) nano-fabrication of inorganic/organic materials. 

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Top Comments
  • 26 Hide
    back_by_demand , July 26, 2010 2:24 PM
    I can imagine putting a disc in the machine, pressing burn and it fires straight though the bottom of the PC, through the floorboards and blasts a hole 60 feet into the ground.
  • 15 Hide
    chickenhoagie , July 26, 2010 2:32 PM
    i'll just go ahead and put my PC on cruise control while i burn 1TB of my music onto a disc..I'll see you all in a couple of weeks! :) 
  • 14 Hide
    mavroxur , July 26, 2010 2:44 PM
    Wolfram23they need to go all digital.



    Apparently you're new to the world of optical discs....
Other Comments
    Display all 54 comments.
  • 7 Hide
    dark_lord69 , July 26, 2010 2:18 PM
    Cool, but I'd be surprised if this comes out anytime soon... but for it to compete with large hard drives it needs to come out soon enough. I wouldn't be surprised if it was going to be used in the PS4.
  • 4 Hide
    sirmorluk , July 26, 2010 2:23 PM
    Looks like my sharks will finally get that upgrade they have been asking for. :) 
    Seriously though. 100w@1Ghz is friggin impressive.
  • 26 Hide
    back_by_demand , July 26, 2010 2:24 PM
    I can imagine putting a disc in the machine, pressing burn and it fires straight though the bottom of the PC, through the floorboards and blasts a hole 60 feet into the ground.
  • 15 Hide
    chickenhoagie , July 26, 2010 2:32 PM
    i'll just go ahead and put my PC on cruise control while i burn 1TB of my music onto a disc..I'll see you all in a couple of weeks! :) 
  • 3 Hide
    insider3 , July 26, 2010 2:37 PM
    I want sharks with Sony "lasers" attached to their freakin heads.
  • 14 Hide
    bildo123 , July 26, 2010 2:42 PM
    Wolfram23Cool, I guess. I just hope they're not planning to use it on PS4... they need to go all digital.


    Pretty sure Blu-Ray isn't analog...neither is this...
  • 14 Hide
    mavroxur , July 26, 2010 2:44 PM
    Wolfram23they need to go all digital.



    Apparently you're new to the world of optical discs....
  • 9 Hide
    sot010174 , July 26, 2010 2:50 PM
    I think he meant go digital DISTRIBUTION.
  • 1 Hide
    hoofhearted , July 26, 2010 2:55 PM
    i suspect 90% of the people buying this will use it for their pron collection
  • 0 Hide
    meat81 , July 26, 2010 2:56 PM
    Sweet, so now i need to keep my Optical Disc Drive in mind when getting a new power supply.....100Watts?!
  • 0 Hide
    dragonfang18 , July 26, 2010 3:03 PM
    When you said "powerful laser", I thought more in the bounds of burning through things, but damn, 100Watts is still damn powerful. I hope it doesnt burn my regular old CD's.
  • -2 Hide
    K-zon , July 26, 2010 3:14 PM
    They should leaves disc with the p4, rather they go digital or not. They should make the discs are of something cool with the new tech. A disc holding 1tb of info might be worth the money if extra cost assorted into it with a new material. Cause still havent heard anything about the lifecycle of a Blu-ray disc yet, or ive just forgot.
  • -5 Hide
    requiemsallure , July 26, 2010 3:15 PM
    1w laser can damage/burn things, so wouldn't 100w damage the hard drive it was put in, on top of that how hot would those HDD's run? answer these questions and i'll say A+ provided all is good.
  • 5 Hide
    JonathanDeane , July 26, 2010 3:15 PM
    I would like 1TB optical now, I suspect when these come out though that I will be wishing they stored more....
  • 1 Hide
    sirmorluk , July 26, 2010 3:18 PM
    In other news: Sony 1TB optical writable disks are now on sale @ newegg for the low price of $495 ea.
  • 3 Hide
    Anonymous , July 26, 2010 3:21 PM
    What real value have optical drives these days? I prefer flash memory for storage nowadays, hardware with moving parts always fail at some point.
  • 4 Hide
    danlw , July 26, 2010 3:34 PM
    Note that 100W is the PEAK power. The average power of the laser will be much less than 100W.

    So, while Blu-Ray is sufficient for most of us, it would be nice to see an uncompressed 1:1 format, or at least a far less compressed format. An hour of uncompressed 1080p video can take up around 500GB. So what we see on Blu Ray is 20:1 compression, at best. Hopefully such a "videophile format" won't be relegated to obscurity like the SACD format... That would be the "Holy Grail" of video formats, as far as home theater is concerned.

    Yeah, there is the 4K video format (4096x2304), but unless you are sitting 5 feet from a 120" screen, you likely won't see the difference.
  • 2 Hide
    falchard , July 26, 2010 3:36 PM
    It seems a little excessive... You have to wonder about the costs involved as 100 watts is not a feasible wattage for an optical drive in a PC. Can you imagine plugging in a PCI-e 6-pin connecter into your Blu-Ray player?
  • 3 Hide
    MxM , July 26, 2010 3:45 PM
    I do not understand why they need 100W laser. In telecom they propagate 10Gb/s channels through the fiber with launch power around 1mW, and there is enough power to detect it after 100km of the fiber, where the power is 100 times less.

    May be they need it for fast Write functionality, but definitely not for read.
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