 TDK this week confirmed its plan to develop a Blu-ray disc with a storage capacity of 200GB. Let’s put that into perspective - how big is the hard drive in the PC or laptop you’re currently using? It’s around three times the size of the storage available on my current machine.
If successful, the company’s R&D team will produce a disc with four times the capacity of today’s biggest BDs and double the size of protoype next-generation BD-Rs TDK has already shown off. TDK unveiled a 100GB prototype in May 2005, which contained four data-storage layers, is recordable and supports a write speed of up to 216Mbps, double that of 50GB BD-Rs.
 The 100GB disc is expected to retail next year, but with 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs not yet on the market, the timescale is very much open to question. The launch timeframe of the 200GB disc is even more uncertain, with TDK refusing to even puit a date on a prototype, let alone one that’s ready for market.
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