Folio Photonics, an Ohio-based start-up, has just disclosed its new innovations in the world of data storage. The announced innovation promises to pave the way for affordable optical discs that can store up to 1TB of data per disc.
Compared to Blu-Ray, the new storage capacity is ten times higher than the storage as a typical 4K Blu-Ray disc has the ability to store up to 100 GB of data. The idea of having 8K Blu-Ray discs is not new. But they do not exist!
And the theoretical data capacity of holding up to 200 GB or 250 GB per disc is still theoretical.
On the other hand, Folio Photonics plans to bring 10TB cartridges packed with 1TB discs to the market by 2024. However, the interesting thing is that the discs are not being developed to create an ultra-expensive, high-storage storage format.
Instead, Folio plans to put stiff competition for the hard drives that cost around $25 for 1TB of storage. According to the development data, the brand will target to offer the discs for $5 per TB.
But how is Folio managing to keep the cost down while massively increasing the disc capacity? Unfortunately, the brand has kept it as a secret.
And to make matters more interesting, the idea is inevitably patented, which means Blu-Ray will not be capable of catching up to it using the technology that these discs are utilizing.
Nonetheless, Folio did talk a little about the new high-capacity discs. According to the brand, they have made a breakthrough in optical disc layering.
The breakthrough allowed them to create discs with eight or even sixteen different layers. That amount of layers hugely contrasts the traditional three-layer optical discs that you see in the market today.
Discs have surely become cheap these days. Consumers have been relying on these discs for a prolonged amount of time. But the thing that has made discs a less favorable option for most is the capacity limitations.
In general, for consumer media, the 4K Blu-Ray discs are limited to 100GB of storage. Compared to other optical discs, the 4K Blu-Ray is pretty expensive too.
Furthermore, 8K optical discs might never be a thing. And even if the 8K discs come out, they will be more expensive than the 4K options available in the market. Most importantly, the storage will for them be limited to 250GB.
So, all things considered, what Folio Photonics is cooking seems to be a true successor to Blu-Ray. And these innovative discs will surely be the saving grace of physical media, which is now slowly phasing out.
Slava is a man of mystery and no-one seems to know exactly where he is at any point in time. When he isn't enjoying writing about all things audio and technical he can be found researching his next project of interest. The man never rests.