400GB BD-ROM Prototyped: Compatible With PS3
Optical media is rapidly approaching the level of obscene storage capacity. Pioneer recently announced that they have created a 16-layer, super high density Blu-Ray disk that is fully backwards compatible with existing players such as the Playstation 3. That means that we could be seeing monolithic cinematic games (see: Metal Gear Solid 4) of even larger, auto-piloty stature in the near future.
The technology of the super multi-layer read-only disc is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with a breakthrough in material of reflective layers, according to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan. The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players, the company said.
The disks will not be available for mass production until sometime in 2010, not very far off by today's standard. What does this mean for Playstation 3 owners? Will we be seeing games too large to install on even the most expensive systems? Will the read speed be the ultimate reason to upgrade their console to a new revision? Frankly, I don't really care. This effectively ends the reason to do disk swapping and that makes me extremely happy.
Pioneer showcases 16-layer 400GB optical disc [Digitimes]
[via Engadget]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 3 December 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: blu-ray, dense disks, pioneer, playstation 3, sony
It's about goddamned time. It's an embarrassment to human civilization that magnetic tape is still a viable enterprise backup solution... With this kind of data-density available on optical media, hopefully writable versions will be affordable soon and we can banish clunky magnetic tapes forever.
Not to mention back up my entire music collection on one BD-RW, every DVD in my house on 10 others, and all my old games on maybe one or two more. Finally, moving won't be 90% a data management chore.