Mempile has claimed to be addressing tomorrow's archival storage needs with its TeraDisc technology that can store one terabyte (TB) of data on a single DVD-sized optical disc, and with a roadmap of up to 5 TB.

"The current crop of blue-laser media is being pushed to its limits and will not be able to support the archival storage demands consumers will expect in the very near future," says Dr Beth Erez, Mempile's executive VP. "The industry needs to focus on developing or embracing new technologies that can scale to meet tomorrow's demand."

The company points to a study conducted by Coughlin Associates ('Consumer Survey on Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics'), which reports that consumer data storage needs will quickly outpace the maximum capacity of both current BD and HD DVD storage solutions by 2010.

The study, announced at the Storage Visions conference during CES 2008, showed that by 2013 the average household will accumulate a combined total of nearly 9,000 GB of commercial and personal data (movies, music, photos, games, downloads, etc). Respondents said that if given the opportunity to own an unlimited amount of inexpensive, permanent, portable storage, 74% would make permanent back-ups of their PC; 66% would put their entire music collection on one disc; 63% would keep personal copies of medical records; 61% would copy multiple movies to a single disc; and 57% would permanently store entire series of their favourite TV shows.

"Digital media brings a wealth of choice, connectivity and convenience to our lives, but the more we demand of our content, the greater the need for home storage solutions to archive, protect and distribute this content," says Thomas Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates and chief author of the study.

Story filed 20.01.08