Hitachi Maxell unveils flimsy DVD

Hitachi Maxell has created new DVD technology, just by shrinking it. The same diameter and shape is identical to a typical DVD, but is just 0.092 mm thick, only 1/13th the thickness. It still has the same storage capacity as a typical DVD – 4.7GB. While not obviously useful by itself, the strength of the concept comes when they are combined. The Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc, or SVOD, consists of 100 of the thin discs in a single cartridge which is 6.5 cm thick. Each of the discs actually consists of two surfaces laminated together, giving each disc a capacity of 9.4GB. That means that the SVOD cartridge has a capacity of 940GB, which can be used both for random access memory and long term storage. The discs could be used for library systems and other high capacity storage applications.

The company says that next generation DVD technology could bring the total capacity for an SVOD up to 5 terabytes. A stack of the current discs will cost $325.