A frequent feature of many science fiction movies is the "data crystal", likely some cheap quartz prop, but the concept behind the crystal medium isn't all that far-fetched.
A subject of recent research in the field of electronic data storage has long been holographic data storage. Current optical disks, for example, are effectively two-dimensional platters that are read by a laser. Newer disks have begun to incorporate a "layered" storage medium that uses different wavelengths to read varying tiers of stacked data, but even those don't compare to the promise of Holographic memory. Holographic memory uses a very complex algorithm that calculates a value based on an arrangement of "platters" stacked on top of each other. The figures they create by moving relative to each other create interference patterns that become your stored data: your pictures are massive jigsaw puzzles of overlapping layers of holographic media.
The reason that this is of note today is because it isn't as unfeasible as some other theories I've blogged about before. Rather, Daewoo Industries has recently created the first functioning model. As with all new technologies, it is not cost-effective yet by any means, but given time, a theoretical maximum of one trillion bits per cubic centimeter is feasible...that number turns into about 250 gigabytes. An internal data transfer rate of about 250 megabytes per second would be the norm, far faster than my current optical drive read rate on my computer.
IBM also has grand plans with something called Racetrack Memory, which has been variously reported to increase storage capacities 100-fold. Other media formats exist, but most are only hypothetical; since the current leaders in optical disk technology are Blu-Ray stacked disks and primordial Holographic disks, another change in format will be due soon. Floppy diskettes to CDs, to DVDs to HDDVDs, nothing is as far away as people tend to think.
Interestingly enough, In 1989 Western Digital's 40 megabyte hard drive retailed for about $1200. In 2004 they released the Digital Caviar, which had 30,000 times the storage capacity by price (Wikipedia said 36,000, but my calculations told otherwise). The fifteenth root of 30,000 is just under two, so if the 250 gigabyte Western Digital hard drive was $250, the general retail price, and I just saw a 1 terabyte hard drive for $230, then we've actually accelerated since the 1989-2004 period, during which capacities increased by just under a factor of two each year. The newer factor is above two per year, which actually exceeds the prediction by the-scientist-whose-name-I-can't-remember who said that we would be increasing storage capacities twofold per year.
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