Future Tech: Holographic Storage

Imagine storing 300GB on a piece of plastic not much larger than a DVD. That is the premise behind InPhase Technologies' new holographic storage technology, which uses a pair of lasers to create three-dimensional interference patterns that can represent up to a million bits at once. InPhase hopes to bring a product to market sometime during 2006. Toshiba has invested in a competing firm called Optoware that is developing a 1.6-terabyte holographic disc format. Rumor has it that Hollywood is already working on ways to make these discs a huge pain to use.