Thursday, October 10, 2002
Philips Shows Off Coin-Size Optical Discs
Posted by Jason Dunn in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 09:10 AM
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105602,00.asp
Holy Shades of DataPlay Batman! Small, coin-sized disc, perfect for storage? That's what Philips is saying, but after getting initially excited about DataPlay and then being disappointed when they couldn't bring the product to market, I'm hesitant to get my hopes up about this. I'm just not convinced this is the way to go - solid state storage (CompactFlash, SD) has so many advantages over "spinning" media. If they want a smaller size, how about making an 80 mm version of a DVD-R? It would hold around 1.2 GB, and be much smaller than current DVD. Still, if this gets some traction it could help spur blue laser readers in other types of devices, which would be a good thing - blue lasers are definitely the future of optical storage.
"Koninklijke Philips Electronics is using the Ceatec 2002 exhibition to give a recently developed miniature optical disc and drive its first major public showing--and the company couldn't be happier with the reaction from the Japanese public. The discs, called small form factor optical storage or SFFO, are intended to replace memory cards in future generations of mobile electronics products and so have to be very small. In the case of Philips' prototype system, the discs are 1.2 inches in diameter but can hold up to 1GB of information.
...It is based on blue laser technology of the same type now being developed by Philips and other major electronics companies for use in optical disc-based video systems that are expected to replace DVD. Blue lasers have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in DVD or CD and so use a much smaller space on the disc to store data. This is how Philips is able to squeeze 1GB, or roughly 50 percent more data than the maximum capacity of a CD-ROM, onto a disc the size of a large coin."
Holy Shades of DataPlay Batman! Small, coin-sized disc, perfect for storage? That's what Philips is saying, but after getting initially excited about DataPlay and then being disappointed when they couldn't bring the product to market, I'm hesitant to get my hopes up about this. I'm just not convinced this is the way to go - solid state storage (CompactFlash, SD) has so many advantages over "spinning" media. If they want a smaller size, how about making an 80 mm version of a DVD-R? It would hold around 1.2 GB, and be much smaller than current DVD. Still, if this gets some traction it could help spur blue laser readers in other types of devices, which would be a good thing - blue lasers are definitely the future of optical storage.
"Koninklijke Philips Electronics is using the Ceatec 2002 exhibition to give a recently developed miniature optical disc and drive its first major public showing--and the company couldn't be happier with the reaction from the Japanese public. The discs, called small form factor optical storage or SFFO, are intended to replace memory cards in future generations of mobile electronics products and so have to be very small. In the case of Philips' prototype system, the discs are 1.2 inches in diameter but can hold up to 1GB of information.
...It is based on blue laser technology of the same type now being developed by Philips and other major electronics companies for use in optical disc-based video systems that are expected to replace DVD. Blue lasers have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in DVD or CD and so use a much smaller space on the disc to store data. This is how Philips is able to squeeze 1GB, or roughly 50 percent more data than the maximum capacity of a CD-ROM, onto a disc the size of a large coin."
