Start of the hologram wars? - tech - 18 January 2007 - New Scientist Tech

Start of the hologram wars? - tech - 18 January 2007 - New Scientist Tech: "As the war rages over what format will make up the next generation of DVDs, signs of an impending battle over their successors are already in the air.

A new type of disc that promises to cram in up to 300 times as much data as today's DVDs is poised to hit the market, and a similar, rival disc whose data is recorded and read differently is to be released within a few years.

The new discs use a holographic technique to store data in three dimensions. At first they will be used by businesses and governments to back up their vast archives, but in a few years they could hit the consumer market, with one disc able to store multiple high-definition movies. 'We expect holographic storage to be really huge,' says Mukul Krishna, an analyst with Frost and Sullivan based in San Antonio, Texas, who specialises in digital media."