DVD-like optical disc could store 1.6 petabits (or 200 terabytes) on 100 layers

Great, throw a few in an old spinner HDD case and there goes your data issues for a few years.

I don’t look forward to discs like DVDs making a comeback.

Playing a movie off of a DVD, holding media in your hand. Owning it. Just like a Record. We were just talking about how dumb it is not to have a CD/DVD player on a PC anymore. We have hundreds of movies and music CD's.
 
From what I understand the "burned" optical discs only last 10-15 years before the chemical breaks down enough that they can't be read well. Pressed discs should last near as makes no difference forever as long as you take care of it.

As for these petabyte optical discs... using "uniform photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye", whatever that is; sounds chemicalish to me so I imagine it would have similar limitations. Though I'm no where near smart enough to know what this quote really means, so hopefully I'm wrong. If we could have archival media that lasts hundreds of years and holds a petabyte, that should be pretty useful for humanity for at least a few more decades.

I too have some burned CDs that I made in the 2000's, and most of them are still readable - however I did have a few that wouldn't work. So it does appear they are breaking down.
 
From what I understand the "burned" optical discs only last 10-15 years before the chemical breaks down enough that they can't be read well.
While there are some discs that do degrade, this is highly dependent on the formulations used in the sublimate dyes. Some are far more stable and long lasting than others. Speed of the recording also plays a big part in recording longevity. The faster the recording speed, the shorter the exposure time is for laser reaction and the less time the dye has to react properly or completely.

So it does appear they are breaking down.
Yes, but not at a predicable rate. The above stated variations play a huge role in when and how fast degradation will happen. M-Disc formulations however, are not governed by the same limitations. Any M-Disc recordings should last 1000years or more.
 
From what I understand the "burned" optical discs only last 10-15 years before the chemical breaks down enough that they can't be read well. Pressed discs should last near as makes no difference forever as long as you take care of it.

As for these petabyte optical discs... using "uniform photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye", whatever that is; sounds chemicalish to me so I imagine it would have similar limitations. Though I'm no where near smart enough to know what this quote really means, so hopefully I'm wrong. If we could have archival media that lasts hundreds of years and holds a petabyte, that should be pretty useful for humanity for at least a few more decades.

I too have some burned CDs that I made in the 2000's, and most of them are still readable - however I did have a few that wouldn't work. So it does appear they are breaking down.
I've always used Archival media. Says 100 years, but I'll give it 25. So far movies I've burned from 15 years ago are fine, even with scratches. I like the Verbatim media.
 
I too have some burned CDs that I made in the 2000's, and most of them are still readable - however I did have a few that wouldn't work. So it does appear they are breaking down.
Don't forget, the DVD burners of the time were garbage. But, you couldn't expect too much at $15.00 a pop. Four out of five drive trays failed to open after a couple of months. I took to drilling out the holes to fit a miniature screwdriver, so I didn't have to keep buying paperclips.
 
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Speed of the recording also plays a big part in recording longevity. The faster the recording speed, the shorter the exposure time is for laser reaction and the less time the dye has to react properly or completely.
I run everything a half speed. 8x for single layer DVD, 4x for dual. CDs get run at 24x, or whatever speed near that the disk will allow.

Funny story. I bought a Blu-ray burner. However, disks that were offered on DVD & Blu-ray, very often carried some of the extant Blu-ray DRM over to the DVDs. While it would screw up DVDs I tried to burn with it, older DVD drives would just ignore the newer DRM completely.

Funny story #2. I have a standalone dual tray Teac music CD burner. The music CDs for it were pushing up against a buck a pop. (I was told that we were paying for the impending copyright violation in advance). Anyway, that machine came with the directive, "for best results copy at 1:1."

I haven't played with it in a while. It's hooked up to an old Pioneer A/V receiver, (ciirca 2000), which (IIRC), doesn't have mag phono input. It's probably cringe worthy by audiophile standards, but I bought a $20.00 Behringer preamp to hook up to my 40 year old Technics SL-1300.

Trouble is, every time I try to rip a record, between the clicks, pops, and excess compression, I find myself on Ebay trying to buy the same thing in CD anyway.

Oh wait, maybe I should rush out and rebuy the entire collection on fresh vinyl......or NOT.
 
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With optical discs there was and always will be issues of reading/writing speeds, poor acess time and corruption. I clearly remember some discs that I used to burn faced read errors right after burning.
 
Forward-looking: As consumers increasingly turn toward digital distribution and data center operators try various storage methods, optical discs haven't stopped evolving. A recently published paper explains how manufacturers could make DVD-like discs that hold the equivalent of hundreds or thousands of Blu-rays.

Researchers at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology have developed an optical disc with a capacity of over a petabit of data, equivalent to well over 100 terabytes. Although the technology is primarily proposed for enterprise use, it could potentially become accessible to consumers after overcoming significant obstacles.

The scientists were able to significantly increase the capacity of an optical disc by implementing a 3D planar recording architecture. The technology uses a highly transparent, uniform photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye and stimulated by femtosecond lasers.

Related reading: Anatomy of a Storage Drive: Optical Drives

This allows hundreds of layers to be packed one micrometer apart on a disc with the same thickness as a DVD or Blu-ray. The most advanced Blu-ray discs support up to four layers, typically carrying around 100 gigabytes of data. By comparison, the researchers claim that their new format can record 100 layers on both sides of the disc for a capacity totaling 1.6 petabits, or around 200 terabytes.

Stacking many petabit discs together could reduce exabit data centers to a fraction of their current typical size. Consolidating servers would also drastically lower heat and energy consumption. Additionally, utilizing extreme-capacity optical discs simplifies data migration and minimizes the need for it. Another potential advantage is longevity – the researchers claim the petabit discs can last 50 to 100 years.

Although the new medium could be made compatible with current optical disc technology, the researchers haven't yet developed a fast, affordable drive for it. If one emerges, the new discs could store data comparable to dozens of hard drives, 2,000 PlayStation 5 game discs, or a similar number of 4K Blu-ray discs.

Thinking beyond media playback, the developers suggest that petabit discs could allow individuals or families to own data centers, storing all of their important information on one drive at home instead of multiple devices and cloud servers.

Other novel methods of mass storage are also under investigation. In 2021, researchers from the University of Southampton proposed a "5D" method of stowing data on glass discs. Using an energy-efficient laser, the technology could pack 500TB onto a DVD-sized disc, but improvements in read and write speed are necessary.

Permalink to story.

Wow, petabyte optical discs sound like a game changer! Storing hundreds of terabytes on a single disc is incredible. I wonder how this will impact cloud storage in the long run.
 
With optical discs there was and always will be issues of reading/writing speeds, poor acess time and corruption. I clearly remember some discs that I used to burn faced read errors right after burning.
If you're having problems like what you have just described, you're doing something wrong.
 
Learned something from the CD-era:
1) Some material is not reliable, CD layer will corrode or vanish over time
2) Production must be cheap, capacity may not be very large but speed is important
3) New disc writer need to be reliable and easy to use, I've use CD since 2X era, writing CD is not easy at the very beginnings.
 
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