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(Image credit: Andy Edser)
Good news for those of you that have kept that big ol' stack of burned DVD and CD backups, taking up space in your attic: They may well be making a comeback. A team of researchers also appear to have also had a hard time letting the concept of spinning disc storage go, as they’ve developed an optical disc with a massive capacity of well over a petabit of data.
Another associated benefit would be the minimisation of data migration. Thediscs are said to be highly stable, with an expected lifespan of 50 to 100 years. That’s a huge leap over current data centre HDD based storage systems, which generally move data over to new devices every five to 10 years to avoid data-loss from ageing drives.
And while enterprise usage appears to be the priority, the researchers also say that home databases are a potential future use-case. If you’ve got a stack of external hard drives backing up your precious holiday photos, videos and documents, the team envisions a future where a home database might make use of the technology, storing a whole family’s worth of aggregated data on a single, familiar looking disc.
Peak Storage(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
Peak Storage
(Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
(Image credit: Future)
Best SSD for gaming: The best speedy storage today.Best NVMe SSD: Compact M.2 drives.Best external hard drives: Huge capacities for less.Best external SSDs: Plug-in storage upgrades.
The downside? Well, as things currently stand the researchers have yet to develop a fast and affordable drive to read the discs, although the new media could be made to be compatible with current optical disc technology in the future. So I wouldn’t go digging out that old DVD or Blu-ray drive just yet, unless you enjoy a heavy dose of pleasing technological nostalgia.
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A simpler time, wasn’t it? The comforting whirr of an optical drive, the press of a button revealing a hidden tray. Oh the things we’ve lost. Although if this research continues to develop, perhaps we’re not far away from spinning discs making a return into our daily lives once more.
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