Star Trek is Here
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First of all a short apology. I know I've had a few editorials ranging far off the topic of data and SQL Server recently. I shall endeavor to stick closer to the primary focus of this site, which is SQL Server in the real world. But I reserve to write to range afar at times as there is more to life, including at your job as a DBA, than SQL Server. If you don't agree, please reply to the Why Steve Jones' Editorials Suck thread.
But enough of that. This is really something out of the old Gene Roddenberry, black and white Star Trek series I saw as a kid. Or at least it will be in Sept 2006. Holographic storage is here, or coming, and will be something you can purchase in 10 or so months.
Maxell is planning on selling holographic discs then that have a capacity of 300GB and a throughput, maybe the most important part, of 160mbps. I can honestly say that it seems like 3D, holographic storage, something from my childhood science fiction, is not something I really expected to see in my lifetime. But they have a working prototype that looks something like a disk drive. Not the cool crystals from my imagination, but it's a start.
Can you imagine a huge crystal cube in your data center, something on the order of 1 cubic foot, or 929 square centimeters for the less metrically challenged than I. Maybe on a black pedestal of some sort with a few wires coming out of it heading to your servers? It would certainly make tours much more interesting. Maybe you should just build one and put the storage inside the pedestal so you can point it out as your storage cube 🙂
I have to admit it's pretty cool, but with all the security issues we've had recently, I'm not sure I want more storage on smaller and more portable devices. Can you imagine a USB sized holographic drive with 1TB of storage? Something you could easily slip into your mouth as you walk out the door with copies of the financial database on it?
As with all new advances, this is a double edged sword and there will be good and bad uses of it's application. Very cool for my TiVo, not so cool for unsecured copies of corporate data.
Steve Jones
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I was hoping the teleporters from star trek would be here first, but holographic storage is also very cool
i wonder what sort of power consumption would hologrpahic drives use..couldnt find anything out about that....
Steve , why would there be unsecured copies of corporate data floating around
LOL
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Life is far too important to be taken seriously -
IIRC Hitachi is talking magnetic medium HD's at 1TB in a standard HD. That's almost as portable.
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Jim P.A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
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Umm...Steve, Star Trek was never in black and white. Your parents may have told you that so you wouldn't pester them for a color tv.
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1 cubic foot = 28317 cubic centimeters.
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I htink this is a pretty cool technology, I first read about it as a concept a few years ago. Looks like practical applications are already in development:
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,106288,00.html
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Perhaps, never had a color TV until my senior year
And apparently I've confused square and cubic measurements
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Actually the very first episode was B&W. The Cage I think that was the only one and was later colorized.
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Jim P.A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
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Holographic storage! A capacity of half a million 300 page books along with fast speed and random access! This is going to be big. We better start working on explainations for when it's offline.
Here's my top 5 excuses:5.) The smoke the hired consultants are spewing has clouded the holographic lens.
4.) The IT team is using the holographic storage as the data center disco ball.
3.) Someone changed the setting from holographic to microwave.
2.) The holographic DBA is busy mind-melding with the Vulcan tech.
1.) Someone tuned the holographic channel to Baywatch.
Feel free to make your own additions to the list.
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Live long and prosper ...
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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holographic.. apparently an old word acquiring a new meaning.
Just a couple of days ago I got a letter from a lawyer about my aunt's holographic will (wow cool like R2D2's transmission in Star wars???!!!) only to find out it means 'written entirely in one's own hand' (derived from 'holograph'), in her case it was on the back of an envelope.
Oh well
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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Using my jedi mind powers I sense a merging in these conversations between STAR TREK and WARS.
Hologrpahic imagery has been around for some time.
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