Tapestry Media

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Tapestry Media is a digital optical disc about the size of a DVD with a capacity of 300GB. It will go on sale in 2007, according to its
American developer, InPhase Technologies, a Lucent spin-off. No major motion pictures will be released onto the format.

[edit] Technology
Normal DVDs record data by measuring microscopic ridges on the surface of a spinning disc. Two competing successors to the DVD
format — Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD — use the same technique, but exploit shorter wavelengths of light to cram more information onto
the surface.

The Tapestry system uses light from a single laser split into two beams: the signal beam and the reference beam. The hologram is formed
where these two beams intersect in the recording medium.

The process for encoding data onto the signal beam is accomplished by a device called a spatial light modulator, which translates the
electronic data of 0s and 1s into an optical "checkerboard" pattern of light and dark pixels. The data is arranged in an array or "page" of
around a million bits.

At the point of intersection of the reference beam and the signal beam, the hologram is recorded in the light sensitive storage medium. A
chemical reaction occurs in the medium when the bright elements of the signal beam intersect the reference beam, causing the hologram.

By varying the reference beam angle, wavelength or media position many different holograms can be recorded in the same volume of
material.

[edit] Storage
The discs will reportedly hold 300 GB when they come to the market, but have a maximum theoretical capacity of 1.6 terabytes using
holographic memory technology to store data by interference of light. The read/write speed of this media is around 10 times the speed for
a standard DVD[citation needed].

InPhase Technologies has formed an alliance with Hitachi/Maxell to market and sell the discs. The first public demonstration was held at
the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition of November 2005[1] in Tokyo.

The Tapestry disc has an effective capacity of approximately 26 hours of high-definition video (25 Mbit/s data rate). The discs are
marginally wider (13cm vs. 12cm) and thicker than conventional DVDs.