Holographic Data Storage System

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Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) program was a

US Federal government-funded consortium on holographic data storage by Teledyne Technologies, IBM and Stanford University, created in 1995.[1] Work on the program began in 1994 and it was funded by DARPA.[2]

History

The holographic data storage system was created with the initial goals of developing several key components for the system, including a high-capacity, high-bandwidth

holograms
could hold the key to high-capacity data storage in the next millennium.

Mechanism

Large amounts of data can be stored holographically because lasers are able to store pages of electronic patterns.[3] Holographic storage is sometimes referred to as 3D storage within special optical materials as opposed to just on the surface. In traditional holography, each viewing angle gives a different aspect of the same object. With holographic storage, however, a different 'page' of information is accessed.

Holographic storage uses two laser beams, a reference and a data beam, to create an

interference
pattern at a medium where the two beams intersect. This intersection causes a stable physical or chemical change which is stored in the medium.

During the reading sequence, the action of the reference beam and the stored

interference pattern in the medium recreates this data beam which may be sensed by a detector array. The medium may be a rotating disk containing a polymeric material, or an optically sensitive single crystal. The key to making the holographic data storage system work is the second laser beam which is fired at the crystal to retrieve a page of data. It must exactly match the original reference beam angle. A difference of a thousandth of a millimeter will fail to retrieve the data. Holography is expected to be of value in archival
or library storage applications where large quantities of data need to be retained at the lowest costs possible.

Apparent benefits

Since it involves no moving parts, holographic data storage will be more reliable than existing

rewritable
form of holographic storage.

During CES 2006, a workable holographic drive was tested and stored 300 GB of memory compared to

Blu-ray
's 100 GB. It has been announced that hologram disks will be a post-Blu-ray storage device.

References

  1. ^ Quan, Margaret (29 January 2001). "Lucent venture eyes holographic storage technology". EE Times. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  2. ISBN 0824742508
    . Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  3. ^ "Holographic Memory". Popular Mechanics. 173 (3): 14. 1996. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
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