Digital paper-a write once optical medium

An analysis of the current data storage hierarchy indicates that only 2% of the world´s data is stored on chip or disc while the remaining 98% is stored mainly on paper or microfilm. Consequently there remains a major opportunity for technology development that stimulates a major shift from paper to storage in electronic form, provided that the media and hardware are competitive in terms of speed, area efficiency and cost. It is the purpose of this presentation to show that optical tape, a flexible optical medium developed by ICI Imagedata, exhibits an outstanding balance of features which makes it able to challenge the current storage hierarchy. Indeed, because this media stores date in digital form with costs comparable to storage on paper it has been dubbed `digital paper´. Within this presentation, therefore, it is intended to: provide data illustrating performance/cost advantages of digital paper based systems; describe digital paper and discuss the technical challenges being overcome; discuss drive development programmes aimed at exploiting the benefits of flexible optical media; and present data illustrating the excellent recording characteristics of digital paper