Storage Technology Corp is one of the select band of companies investigating the potential of holographic storage crystals for storing data. Fred Moore, vice-president in charge of strategic planning said that the Louisville, Colorado company had had a major breakthrough in the fourth quarter of 1994 with an unnamed defence contractor, but would say no more. He claimed that up to 100Mb could be stored in a cubic centimetre of crystal in two-dimensional ‘pages’ each containing 100Kb of information. The technology uses read and write lasers to store data by altering the patterns of electrons in the crystal, providing a random access medium not subject to the rigours of heat or humidity. However, Moore said that at the moment the crystals do have a tendency to wear out and are very expensive. Tamareck Storage Devices Inc, Hughes Aircraft Co and Rockwell International Inc are also researching similar technology (CI No 2,478).
