TDK cracks 200GB Blu-ray discs
Technology manufacturing company TDK has managed to push Blu-ray's capacity even higher, to create a 200GB prototype disc.
In an announcement on Thursday, the company also said it would start shipping 50GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray discs next week.
Previously, TDK's Blu-ray discs had a capacity of 25GB per layer, but it has now managed to raise this to 33GB. The 200GB disc is single-sided, with six layers.
TDK originally said back in April that it was working on a six-layer, 200GB Blu-ray disc, and it insists there will be a market for such a high-capacity disc.
"Data storage requirements for business users are increasing — everybody wants higher capacity," said Taro Ikushima, head of product marketing for TDK Corporation.
Ikushima said that removable media would still be popular, despite the rise of Web-based storage and broadband.
"If you're talking about small amounts of data [you can use the Web]. But 50GB of video data is too large to download. With a large capacity you need removable storage like a Blu-ray disc," Ikushima told ZDNet UK.
Based on simulated acceleration tests, TDK's archival life expectancy rating for Blu-ray disc media is more than 50 years. TDK claims "virtually no performance degradation even after it has been overwritten 10,000 times".
Recommended retail pricing is €35 for a 50GB BD-R (write-once) and €45 for a 50GB BD-RE (write-many).