Exclusive Interview: Mempile Promises 1TB TeraDisc

By Nate Searing, Senior Associate Editor

Mempile is taking the wraps off its TeraDisc™ technology today, heralding the news that it is now capable of storing up to one TeraByte (1000 GB) of data on a single, DVD-sized optical disc. The company recently demonstrated this concept to several Japanese CE manufacturers by recording and reading over 100 virtual layers on a single DVD-size optical disc.

To explain the technology behind the TeraDisc, as well as give an overview of the company's CE strategy, we sat down with Beth Erez, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Mempile.

Consumer Electronics Daily News: Give our readers a little bit of background about Mempile.

BE: The company has been in existence since 2001, and is incorporated in Delaware as Mempile Inc. A majority of the research and development activity is done in Israel and Japan. Mempile has been funded by Venture Capital monies totaling $32.6M to date. The company has 27 patents filed and two patents granted as of this writing.

CEDN: How is 1TB of data on a single disc made possible?

BE: This is possible because we are using a totally different technology, which we have developed, unlike the optical storage today. Two-photon technology uses 3D volumetric storage to record and read virtual layers which are transparent and not reflective. At this time, the technology is WORM [Write Once, Read Many].

CEDN: Are these discs as durable as conventional optical media, and can they be manufactured at a price point that makes them competitive with conventional next-generation optical media [Blu-ray and HD-DVD]?

BE: Definitely. Our regression analysis show viability of over a hundred years with a very high tolerance to thermodynamic and environmental damage...In actuality, it is an acrylic polymer that is inexpensive to produce. We are working with Arkema, a global chemical company, to make sure that the technology is scalable and fits existing disc production processes. Similarly, the drive is a variation on existing DVD-type drives and will therefore also scale to consumer pricing as volume and experience play a role.

CEDN: So in essence, a 1TB Mempile disc holds the equivalent of 20 Blu-ray discs-worth of information on a single disc. Is TeraDisc really a viable rival to HD-DVD and Blu-ray? It seems to be far more space than is needed for even the highest definition movies on the market today.

BE: We are aiming at competing with HD-DVD and BD technologies in the consumer and enterprise markets for the purpose of archival storage. We believe that for the fast-growing storage market at home, there is nothing like HDD for storing your voluminous collection of movies, videos, photos, etc., as you use them, but that HDD cannot be considered a permanent family archive. While HD-DVD and BD are permanent archival records, their capacity is low. Mempile's TeraDisc technology is the only consumer-oriented optical storage product that will be easy for the consumer to use both from the point of view of handling and searching for material. In addition, the costs of the discs will probably be the same, resulting in a great price advantage.

CEDN: How quickly will we see a Mempile 1TB disc on the market?

BE: Our estimate at this point is to have a prototype at alpha sites in about 18 months. The first disc will be around 500GB. The critical path is the drive, which will be able to write and read the disc. The TeraDisc ultimately has a roadmap to 5TB per disc by increasing the thickness. Another point is that unlike some other next-next-generation technologies, the TeraDisc uses bit-by-bit recording in the same manner as existing optical storage and has the same type of bit error rates.

For more information about Mempile, click here.