Panasonic plans to fab 1TB Archival Optical Discs that last 100 years
Intersting story, Panasonic announced it is going to mass produce next gen optical discs with increased capacity. They have started this project together with Sony. They are available in 500GB capacities already, but Panasonic plans to increase volume to 1TB.
The discs are called ‘Archival disc’, reports myce today and it is claimed that the storage unit can retain its data for more than a 100 years:
Higher capacities in optical storage are made possible due to smaller sized pits and marks and shorter wavelength lasers and improved drawing rates. In the case of the ‘Archival Discs’, Panasonic adopted 2 new technologies to realize a capacity of 300GB per disc. Where the land areas between grooves is traditionally unused, Panasonic has found a way to record data on land tracks as well, a technology it calls “land-and-groove technology”.
Optical discs have great potential to further enhance their recording density (storage capacity) with technological advancements in, for example, signal processing technology. If we compare the growth in the recording density of HDDs, optical discs, and magnetic tapes, in 10 years, from 2016 to 2026, the recording density will improve by 7~15% for HDDs and 30~46% for optical discs. For magnetics tapes, the increase is estimated to be less than 30%. To estimate the longevity of the media, industry standard acceleration tests were conducted. Error occurrence rates were measured in temperatures 30℃ and above and in less than 70% humidity. These tests estimate that Archive Discs can reliably store data for more than 100 years. On the other hand, hard disks have a lifespan of a few years, and magnetic tapes a dozen or so years.
Because optical discs have a long life, unlike hard disks and magnetic tapes, there is no need to regularly migrate data from degraded media to new media. Moreover, optical discs do not require operations or cooling of facilities that are associated with hard disks, therefore, long-term storing of data on optical discs can reduce power consumed as well as costs incurred. If 1PB (petabyte) of data are stored for 20 years on HDDs, magnetic tapes, and optical discs, with widely available HDDs and magnetic tapes, the costs come out to be around the same, whereas with optical discs, it is estimated that the data could be store at half the cost.
Another technology used on the Archival Discs is,”Crosstalk-cancelling technology”. This technology cancels crosstalk noise generated by adjacent tracks. This should ensure playback quality without read errors, even with narrow track pitches.
You can read more on the tropic here at panasonic.
20th Century Fox, Panasonic and Samsung Team up for HDR10+ Technology - 08/29/2017 08:26 AM
20th Century Fox, Panasonic Corporation and Samsung Electronics announced today a new partnership to create an open, royalty-free dynamic metadata platform for High Dynamic Range (HDR) through an ass...
Panasonic introduces 2-in-1 semi-rugged Toughpad FZ-Q2 notebook - 03/07/2017 09:34 AM
Panasonic today launched its first semi-rugged 2-in-1 detachable notebook designed to offer mobile workers the very best of both worlds with tablet and notebook functionality in a light but durable bu...
Panasonic RP-SUDP3 USB 3.1 Portable SSDs Released - 01/17/2017 09:41 AM
Panasonic is announcing USB 3.1 portable SSDs, the RP-SUDP3. Coming in two different storage capacities: 128GB and 256GB, these compact and lightweight portable SSDs are equipped with a durable alumin...
Panasonic Toughbook CF-54 has AMD FirePro M5100 - 02/20/2015 09:46 AM
AMD today announced that Panasonic selected AMD FirePro M5100 mobile professional graphics to provide users on-the-move with quality, performance and innovation in a variety of work environments in th...
Panasonic Limited-Edition Toughpad Comic Book Series - 12/31/2014 09:57 AM
Panasonic today released issue two of "Unbreakable Valor," a limited-edition comic book series featuring Panasonic Toughpad rugged tablets. The series follows the adventures of the League ...
Senior Member
Posts: 214
Joined: 2014-06-11
Here's another thing one or two of us may find interesting:
DNA digital data storage
Senior Member
Posts: 2549
Joined: 2012-04-16
You're one hundred years too late.
Senior Member
Posts: 3444
Joined: 2017-08-18
Optical disk is arguably the most reliable storage medium available due to potential longevity. The info in this article is intriguing news for 1% of the people who know about these things.

there is a huge demand for this. just for example: CDC, NASA, Smithsonian, research universities, governmental agencies across the world, major corporations, financial institutions etc...
anyone who handles big data needs to be secure from equipment failures/ losses, flooding, etc.
Senior Member
Posts: 3270
Joined: 2008-11-03
But we were supposed to get 3D Holographic storage cubes for that...
Senior Member
Posts: 214
Joined: 2014-06-11
Optical disk is arguably the most reliable storage medium available due to potential longevity. The info in this article is intriguing news for 1% of the people who know about these things.