FAQ
Product Info
Technology Overview
Media
Future
Competition
Selling Holographic Storage
Funding
History
Holographic Overview
What does this technology do?Holographic technology allows much more data to be stored per square inch than any other storage technology. Essentially, today's conventional technology writes one bit of data at a time on the surface of the media - optical disks, hard disks, or tape. Holographic storage does not write one bit at a time on the surface. Instead, with one flash of light, it writes a page containing >1Mbits through the depth of the disk, which is slightly larger and thicker than a DVD.
Why is it called “holographic storage”?
The tapestry™300r holographic storage drive writes “pages” of data each containing >1Mbits of information through the depth, or thickness, of the media. The next “page” of data is written at a slightly different angle than the first page. Over three hundred pages are written in one location, each with its own unique angle. In essence this creates the same basic structure as the holograms you might have seen in a store or gallery. When you change the viewing angle, the picture changes – yet the physical frame stays in the same place.
What are the key applications for holographic storage?
Applications that require long media life, data security, high capacity, near-line access, all at a competitive price are perfect for holographic storage. The target markets for the tapestry™ products are professional video, rich media, regulatory compliance, and data archive applications such as email, medical and health sciences, government records, scientific data, and general purpose business information.
How will this address business issues in the broadcast industry?
The Professional Video Industry is dealing with massive increases in storage requirements driven by the adoption of high definition (HD) formats and the constant need to improve bottom line performance by accelerating a migration to file-based, networked storage systems in the video industry. tapestry™ products address the needs of the changing video world by providing benefits throughout the video work-flow. For example, it can be used in:
• Digital camera down-load and permanent archive in one step
• Digital copies during post-production
• Digital source master
• High-definition distribution
• Permanent archive
How will this address business issues in the IT space?
Analysts predict that data archive and regulatory compliance applications will grow faster than traditional transaction data for many years to come. Medical imaging, satellite data, scientific models, weather data, email archives, and financial records are common examples. Traditionally, electronic data has resided on hard disk drives while in active use, then copied to tape for back-up and disaster recovery purposes. However, the growth in the amount of data being generated combined with a change in the type of data, is stretching the limits of conventional storage. The challenge is to provide professional products that meet customer needs for data longevity, security, and accessibility, but are also competitive in terms of capacity, performance, and price. Benefits of the tapestry™ are realized by:
- improving access to archive data by eliminating restores from tape
- offering true near-line access to active archives rather than living with the costs and power consumption of hard drives
- providing data security with Write Once, Read Many (WORM) technology that complies with record authenticity requirements
- meeting the long term archive needs of your data with the robust 50 year archive media life and reduce data migration frequency and cost.
Who else is working on holographic storage?
Over 20 companies worldwide are conducting research or are in the early stages of product development. Since 2002, InPhase has been providing custom media formulations and formats, holographic test equipment, and licensing to over 95% of these companies.
What are InPhase's advantages over other holographic data storage companies?
InPhase Technologies is unique because it has in-depth expertise in material science, recording technology, and media manufacturing. No other company has this level of knowledge or experience. InPhase owns 14 patents that were developed at Bell Labs, and has exclusive royalty free rights to another 28 patents. Over 400 patents and disclosures have been filed by InPhase Technologies.
What products and capacities are available?
InPhase Technologies will begin shipping tapestry™300r evaluation drive and media in May 2008 to our strategic partners. In August, our full production tapestry™300r units will be available at 300GB per removable disk.
InPhase Technologies is also partnering with a robotics manufacturer, DSM, to provide automated solutions. By integrating the tapestry™300r, into DSM’s 15 slot autoloader 4.5TB of capacity are provided. The modular library solutions can be configured with as many as 2140 slots providing 642TB.
What does the product roadmap look like?
WORM Format
Generation 1 (tapestry™300r):
- 300GB capacity
- 20MB/s transfer rate (120 Mbps); native mode
- 800GB capacity
- 80MB/s transfer rate (640 Mbps); native mode
- 1.6TB capacity
- 120 MB/s transfer rate (960 Mbps); native mode
The development time between generations is expected to be 18-24 months.
What is the status of rewritable holographic media?
Rewritable media is currently under development and has already demonstrated the ability to record/erase digital data for numerous cycles.
The product roadmap follows the same increase in capacity and transfer rate as WORM, but one generation behind.
Product Info
What is the first InPhase product?tapestry™300r drives and media with a capacity of 300GBs and a 20 MB/s transfer rate (160 Mbps), are the first holographic storage products to be introduced in the market. The first generation drive and media are Write Once, Read Many (WORM). All specifications are for native mode without data compression.
What drive configurations will be available?
The tapestry™300r drives will be available stand alone, rack-mounted, or integrated into a library system.
What interfaces does the drive have?
The tapestry™300r drives will have SCSI, Fibre Channel, and Gig-E interfaces.
What is the wavelength of the laser? (Product/Drive)
A blue laser diode (405 nanometer wavelength) is used to record and read the data.
How will the drive work with my storage and/or editing software?
In order to ease the integration of this revolutionary technology, InPhase Technologies is partnering with the major ISVs in the video production editing market as well as leading providers of ILM software. The tapestry™300r drive will emulate either an LTO or Optical device for integration into your environment.
Will the products be branded “InPhase?”
Yes. The drives will be sold with an InPhase brand to distributors, resellers, select end-users, and on our website. InPhase Technologies will also sell through OEMs, such as Ikegami and our robotics partner, DSM.
Technology Overview
How is data recorded?
Light from a single laser is split into two beams, the data-carrying signal beam, and the reference beam. Data is encoded into the signal beam by a spatial light modulator which converts the electrical signals of 0s and 1s into an optical checkerboard pattern of over one million light and dark bits, or pixels. The hologram is formed when the signal beam and reference beam intersect in the recording medium.
How is data read back?
In order to read the data, the reference beam deflects off the hologram, and projects the image onto a detector that reads the entire data page at once.
How are high capacity and transfer rates achieved?
Conventional storage is recorded one bit at a time. Holographic storage achieves fast transfer rates because it records over one million bits of data in a single millisecond exposure from the laser. High capacities are achieved because hundreds of holograms, each containing over one million bits of data, are recorded in the exact same volume of material.
What goes into this storage solution?
Holography has long held promise as a data storage technology. However, the major challenge has been the development of a suitable storage medium. The fundamental materials research started at Lucent's Bell Laboratories and completed by InPhase Technologies now brings this revolutionary technology to market. The tapestry™ medium meets the commercial requirements of high capacity and performance, durable archive life, all at a competitive price.
Additional breakthroughs in key optical components, such as high-speed CMOS detectors used in digital cameras, digital modulators used in TVs, and blue lasers (405 nanometer wavelength), were critical in the development of a commercial holographic drive. These components have been integrated into the InPhase tapestry™300r drive and have allowed holographic storage to leap from dream to reality.
Media
On what materials technology is the media based?
tapestry™ media is based on a "two-chemistry" photopolymer material comprised of independent yet compatible matrix and imaging components. The material provides high levels of photosensitivity, dimensional stability, optical flatness, and manufacturing robustness in order to maximize recording capacity, performance, and environmental durability.
What is the archival life of the media?
The archive life of the media is 50 years. Archive testing of the material started at Bell Labs and continues at InPhase. The tests are based on accelerated aging tests conducted at a range of high temperatures and humidity. The results are excellent.
Is the media susceptible to damage/corruption from x-rays or airport screening?
No. X-rays and airport security systems have no adverse effect on holographic media, both in its unrecorded or recorded state.
Does InPhase have plans to release a bare disk product?
InPhase has no plans to release a bare disk product. Prior to recording, the media is sensitive to 405 nanometer (nm) light, and the cartridge protects the raw media from exposure. In archive applications, which often use library automation systems, having the protective cartridge enables the library to use bar code labels for media management. The cartridge also provides an added level of protection in applications where the data maybe archived for many decades.
What types of media does InPhase Technologies sell?
In addition to the tapestry™ media being introduced to the business market, InPhase sells media in a variety of formulations and formats to other optical drive companies conducting research in holographic storage.
Future
What is the future of holographic data storage?
Holographic storage is unique because of its flexibility. The medium can be the size of a postage stamp, a credit card, or a very large platter. It is all defined by the requirements of the application. As the technology matures, it could be found in a broad range of applications from the home consumer to super computing environments.
What about a ROM Drive?
InPhase has developed some unique concepts and technologies that are ideally suited for ROM applications and will license both the media, replication technology, and recording technology to consumer electronics companies who will take the product to market.
When will there be a consumer version of holographic storage?
Projects are underway to develop consumer holographic devices by learning from the breakthroughs developed for the professional product. Expect to see consumer devices coming to market over the next several years that will be much smaller in size, maybe even handheld, and priced much lower.
Competition
How does this storage technology compare to other technologies?
With holographic storage you get the key benefits of each current storage technology in one breakthrough product. Holographic storage provides the high capacity and random access of disk, the removability of tape, and the WORM security of optical. The 50 year media life that greatly reduces the need for migrating data, combined with the low power consumption provides excellent total cost of ownership.
Magnetic devices such as hard drives and tape drives write by having the media and the drive head touching each other decreasing reliability and causing head and media wear. This can cause problems with both the media and the heads. Recovering data stored on tape may be problematic if the tape is old or if it has been used many times. Because of the heavy duty cycle of hard drives, they have a life of about 5 years. Magnetic interference is also an issue with magnetic storage devices.
Holography has no head/media contact and data is recorded and read by shining light on the media. Therefore, none of the wear issues, associated with magnetic storage, apply.
Other technologies record data one bit at a time on the surface of the material. Holographic data records over a million bits simultaneously throughout the entire volume of the material.
Additionally, because the tapestry™300r drive and media work by writing many holographic pages in the same spot, the aerial density surpasses tape, optical or hard disk drives, thereby giving holographic storage the potential to be the single storage solution to keep up with the explosion of data storage requirements.
Selling Holographic Storage
How do I buy the tapestry™300r holographic drive and media?
The tapestry™300r products are available through your preferred dealer or reseller. Alternatively, you can purchase the drives and media online directly with InPhase Technologies at www.inphase-tech.com.
What is InPhase's Go-to-Market Strategy?
InPhase Technologies will be selling drives and media to system integrators, value added resellers, and OEM customers. InPhase partner companies will provide an integrated solution to the end customer.
Funding
Who has invested in InPhase?
InPhase has raised > $90 million from VCs, corporate investors, and private funds. Our key corporate investors and development partners are Hitachi Maxell and Bayer Material.
What government grants or awards has InPhase received?
InPhase has received five awards from National Technology Alliance on behalf of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, chartered with providing intelligence data for the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.
The Advanced Technology Program, administered by NIST in the Dept of Commerce, awarded InPhase grants to develop advanced multiplexing, servo tracking techniques, and re-writable media.History
What is the origin of InPhase?
The founding scientists of InPhase were core members of the Lucent Bell Labs team that invented many of the fundamental holographic technologies that are being commercialized by InPhase.
Where did the name InPhase come from?
The scientists at Bell Labs, were brainstorming possible names related to optics. InPhase was the name they liked the best. Holograms are stored and read-out by modifying the phase of the light, or in phase.
The InPhase logo also alludes to the significant enabling intellectual property of InPhase.Warranty
What is the warranty on the tapestry™300r products?
Unless otherwise noted, all hardware products are warranted for twelve (12) months.
To qualify for the warranty all tapestrytm 300r products must be installed by InPhase or by a third party approved by InPhase to perform the installation (currently ServRight).
| Product | Applicable Warranty | Limited Warranty Period* | Service Delivery Method*/*** | Availability & Response Time** |
| InPhase Technologies tapestry™ Drive | Hardware Product Warranty | 12 months from date of shipment to the End User Your shipment invoice is your proof of shipment date |
1 yr parts exchange & labor 1 yr on-site |
8:00 am to 5:00pm, Monday thru Friday, MST
|
| InPhase Technologies tapestry™ Media | Media Cartridge Warranty | 3 year limited warranty | Replacement |
8:00 am to 5:00pm, Monday thru Friday, MST Target: 4 hour remote response time |
* Warranty service indicated in this table reflects base level warranty offerings. Enhancements to base warranty through Extended Customer Service Plans can be purchased through a qualified service provider.
** Unless otherwise stated, all responses are measured from the time the End User calls until InPhase has either established a mutually acceptable time for support to be performed, or InPhase has begun to provide support or remote diagnostics. Response time is based on commercially reasonable effort. In some countries and under supplier constraints, response time may vary. If your location is outside the customary service zone, response time may be longer.
***On-site labor for warranty and service delivery may be provided by an authorized service provider of InPhase.
