Colossal Storage Corp. in Pokomoke City, Md., is developing a rewritable 3-D volume holographic removable disk media. The nanotechnology under development at Colossal is a possible replacement for today's magnetic disk drives and memory chips. Unlike magnetic media, which only stores data on the surface of the disk drive, holographic optical disk drives use two or more laser beams that work with one another to read and write data throughout the disk media.

Michael Thomas, CEO of Colossal, says holographic optical media drives are superior to other storage nanotechnologies because of their 100+TB capacities, near zero read and write response times and 100-plus year lifespan.

Unlike AFM-based storage nanotechnologies, which require two dissimilar materials to come into contact with each other and create friction and shorten a disk media's lifespan, holographic storage has noncontact surfaces, so it has a higher degree of reliability. "Introducing a media like holographic optical disk drives allows users to invest in a disk media once and for all and not force them to continually reinvest in new storage technologies," Thomas says.

The first generation of holographic optical disk media and disk drives is scheduled to hit the market this year when InPhase Technologies Inc. in Longmont, Colo., releases a 300GB holographic disk and drive. About the same size as today's DVDs, they will hold the equivalent of 64 full-length movies. While they initially will be available in a write-once format, a rewritable disk is on InPhase's product road map.

Despite the promises of storage nanotechnology, advances in existing magnetic disk media technologies and difficulties in constructing reliable production facilities are slowing the development of these next-generation technologies.