Due to the density of the data storage, portability is a potentially key benefit as well.
An issue which currently exists with this type of storage
is the slow write-speed compared to the read-speed. If
you think of other optical storage media such as DVDs,
you know from experience that this is definitely the case.
Technology tends to be of the Write Once Read Many
(WORM) system, like DVD-R, but with much higher data
capacity. The flow of data during the write process needs to
be uninterrupted as well – without this, the write process will
fail. This makes holographic storage technology currently
an immature one, with prohibitively high-costs to boot. Time
will tell whether companies and research firms see enough
commercial potential to invest enough in the technology, in
order to overcome the current hurdles and lower costs to
the point where it becomes a commercially viable
storage option.
dataSTICKIES
Earlier this year The Telegraph reported on a concept
named dataSTICKIES, which a startup was hoping to
launch as a cheap method of data storage in capacities
from 4GB to 32GB. According to The Telegraph, dataSTICKIES designers hope that they will replace USB flash
drives, with users carrying small stacks of them like a pad
of Post-it notes.
18 | www.firstdistribution.co.za
The STICKIES will be read by an area around the computer
screen called the Optical Data Transfer Surface (ODTS),
where they will be stuck with low-strength and reusable
glue.
According to Aditi Singh, one of the designers, “USB-based
drives can be inconvenient to use as the positioning and
insertion of the drive in the USB slot needs to be done
precisely. When the slots are at the rear of a device, as is
the case for many desktop computers, this task becomes
even more troublesome. dataSTICKIES are envisaged to
solve this problem by carrying data like a stack of st X