Featured Image Credit: Jan Hakan Dahlstrom/sakchai vongsasiripat/Getty
You might think that DVDs are going the way of the dinosaurs - if they haven't already.
However, that doesn't mean that disc-based storage is on its way out completely.
A team at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology has created a new type of disc-shaped optical storage, one that looks for all the world like a DVD - but can hold loads more data without any trouble.
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While a standard DVD can typically store a little under 5GB of data, according to IEEE Spectrum the new format can manage 1.6 million gigabits - an absolutely massive upgrade.
To put this into a bit of perspective, IEEE Spectrum says this is roughly equivalent to what is transmitted per second over the entire world's Internet.
The difference comes down to layering - a DVD stores data on one layer which is then read by a laser, but the research team managed to encode its data across 100 layers, making for a way more efficient storage system.
This also means that the lasers required to read the data have to be more precise - nanometer-scale lasers, to be exact, so it's not just a simple disc upgrade, but requires a little bit more tech than that.
If you watched a movie a day, one of these discs would keep you going for years and years, but the reality is that the tech's future probably doesn't really lie with entertainment.
After all, the rise of streaming means that DVDs aren't as big a business anymore, with many people reselling their collections or giving them away.
Instead, the researchers are hoping that this new tech could result in a much more efficient system for data centers, which still largely use optical storage like traditional hard drives. The new format could shrink down the space they need significantly if adopted widely.
The centers are some of the most power-guzzling bits of infrastructure that many people don't even realize exist, storing and rerouting huge amounts of data every day, so anything that could make them more efficient or eco-friendly could be a major win.
The tech behind a DVD is very similar to that behind a CD, of course, so you can check out a recent TikTok trend to take a closer look at just how those traditional storage methods work, if you're curious to see it from a more microscopic angle.
