In message <
[email protected]> Bob Willard
Well, the next generation (meaning the stuff that I can't yet afford)
is Blu-ray, and then comes multi-layer Blu-ray, and there will likely
be shorter wavelength LASERs beyond that to crank up the areal density
some more. I doubt if we have reached the absolute physical limits.
From what I understand, we're already about at the physical limits in
terms of rotational speeds existing disks can handle. Sure, many can
spin faster, but IIRC there were some fears of certain older disks
cracking and whatnot. That being said, it's easy enough to make design
tweaks going forward, adding a media speed indicator so that drives
would know what speed a disc is rated to handle.
Obviously high density can be accomplished, and ultimately our optical
media is still two-dimensional, moving to three dimensional formats will
open up a lot of higher density options (which also offers far higher
throughput if the same rotational speeds can be achieved -- If nothing
else, this moves the bottleneck to an area that is more easily
addressed)
However, my point was more that my 2-3 year old drives are still on par
with modern CDR/DVDR drives, there's no advancements that make them
worth replacing other than Bluray (which I don't really look at as an
"advancement" on current drives, as much as a new format entirely)
While I expect I'll have optical drives for the foreseeable future, in
my world optical drives are heading the way of the floppy. Oh, and yes
I still have a 3.5" floppy drive too. My optical drives get nearly as
much use as the floppy, which is to say none.
Between higher broadband penetration, flash media becoming so cheap, and
cloud computing slowly making inroads, I don't think we'll see much
beyond Bluray.
