The Chinese have developed a DVD disk with a capacity of 125,000 gigabytes
Researchers at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology have just figured out how to put up to a petabyte of data on an optical disk, storing the information in 3D. In other words, it’s 125,000 gigabytes on a single DVD-sized disk.
Up until now, optical disks such as DVDs and Blu-rays have been limited in their storage, storing data in only one layer. However, the new technique allows reading and writing up to 100 layers of data in a space of just 54 nanometers.
The technique behind this groundbreaking disk required the development of a completely new material known as photoresist, mixed with phosphors and other components. This material, designated AIE-DDPR, provides a homogeneous and transparent film that is easily processed by lasers on the nanoscale and opens up new possibilities for data storage.
In terms of capacity, this is significantly more than you can get with flash drives or even a hybrid hard disk drive (HHD). One optical disk is approximately 1.2 millimeters high. An HHD disk array that could hold a petabyte of data would be approximately 200 centimeters high. An equivalent Blu-ray array is more than 2 meters high.
