Interesting--CDs 'could be history in five years'

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CDs 'could be history in five years'

Compact discs could be history within five years, superseded by a new generation of fingertip-sized memory tabs with no moving parts.

Scientists say each paper-thin device could store more than a gigabyte of information - equivalent to 1,000 high quality images - in one cubic centimetre of space.

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It's claimed that turning the invention into a commercially viable product might take as little as five years.

The card would not involve any moving parts, such as the laser and motor drive required by compact discs. Its secret is the discovery of a previously unknown property of a commonly-used conductive plastic coating.

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A report in the journal Nature described how the researchers identified a new property of a polymer called PEDOT.

PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity, has been used for years as an anti-static coating on photographic film. Researchers looked at ways of using PEDOT to store digital information. In the new memory card, data in the form of ones and zeroes would be represented by polymer pixels.

When information is recorded, higher voltages at certain points in the circuit grid would "blow" the PEDOT fuses at those points. As a result, data is permanently etched into the device. A blown fuse would from then on be read as a zero, while an unblown one that lets current pass through is read as a one.

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The world gets more science-fictiony everyday! Sometimes I think science fiction is actually driving some of these inventions, because the people who perfect these things got their ideas from sf that was written 10-20 years ago.

Dirk

but where's my jet pack so I can fly to where I want to go? And my underwater and space cities?

It takes a profit motive, man. That's one thing generally not understood by science fiction writers, IMO. There won't be any underwater cities until someone can make some big bucks off building one.

Me, I want teleportation booths, a la Niven. Now that's got a profit motive!

Did Popular Mechanics LIE?

thanks to 9/11. The cops will have them, as in "Blade Runner"; but let ordinary people fly around at will? Nuh uh.

512 meg in a tab smaller than a pen cap? Imagine how cool it would be to just plug one into the dashboard (or home stereo port) and listen. Hell, you could carry your favorite music around on a freakin keyring!

on these little wafers? Sounds more like the memory sticks used in STNG.

The article describes the process of recording information, how it works. Clearly one needs a new machine that none of us own right now.

it could even be something similar to a supermarket checkout scanner.

While you wouldn't need a laser to "read" it; I still think you'd need a laser (or some highly focused energy) to record on it.

more things to lose. notice how, as data storage gets smaller, you lost more and more of it? used to be, someone steals your bag, you lose a CD or three. Now you lose your Ipod. next, you lose your keys, and all your data is gone., super.

Someone better design a special storage device just for the little buggers, that you would wear on your person--less likely to be lost or stolen.

When the world was smaller, your ID was your face. You never travelled more than 20 or 30 miles away and people just knew who you were. You carried your ID in your body.

Now, the world is bigger. There are too many people for us to all know each other. You carry your ID in your pocket.

In the future, the world will be even bigger. People won't have the time or inclination to wait while you fumble for a piece of paper that has to be manually examined. You'll carry your ID in your body.

all in your flesh, one way or another.

if it's only the size of a fingernail? Methinks somebody has VERY big fingers...

Sorry, but I don't see this happening, and for that matter, I am NOT going to buy all my albums again. What exactly is wrong with CD's that they need to be replaced?

Just kidding, sort of. But you know what will happen--when they stop manufacturing CD's and everything is on a new format, then you'll have to buy into it if you want any new music. It may not be this particular format, but something will come along. It's what happened with vinyl LP's, or are you too young to remember that?

Nothing's wrong with CD's; these things just have more storage space and don't require a disc drive to access the data--no moving parts is a big advantage.

...but industry will not let go of the CD until they ready.

The mistake of DVDs will keep this antiquated technology around for at least ten more years.

DVDs a mistake? Yep. The movie industry wanted this for the potential profit (which they got, and then some). The fact is that they are not that much better than what we had before. Barely better than laserdiscs even-27 year old technology. And they cannot handle HDTV due to lack of space on a DVD. The flaws and digital artifacts in DVDs make me cringe. They are about to release DVDs that hold four times as much information. They will be great for standard DVD, but still not good enough for HDTV (the next standard). And they will be incompatible with all existing units.

I'd love to see this new technology come, but don't hold your breath. The entertainment industry has too much invested in CD/DVD technology.

And anyway, direct digital delivery will kill the "CD stores". iTunes and the like, are the future.

music from now on is in .mp3 or .ogg format, and there's NOTHING the labels can do about it. Fuck them and their "we can sneak DRM into this new medium" nonsense. Anybody wanna buy a minidisc player?

That would be about the time that cassette tapes and players came out,the eight track a bit later from Bill Lear. Of course we all knew that eight tracks were a joke but I wonder if the death of albums was predicted say about 1972-73? Nope,held on till when? At least the early 90's and maybe beyond?

CD's will be with us for at least another decade,who knows maybe longer.

David