As expected, 300GB holographic disks are now for sale worldwide

It all began with Hitachi-Maxell’s public presentation of those CD’s. Now it’s reality. The disks are beyond the stage of prototype and they’re now available for sale. However, the costs are still high, not to mention the time spent to build the actual machine. The holographic technology developer, Inphase shipped some samples at the end of last year and was satisfied of the results. Therefore, Inphase signed an agreement with DSM to mass produce the Tapestry holographic drives and sell them to its main corporate-level customers. I can mention among them, Deutsche Bank, European Space Agency, Siemens Medical and VW

The OEM 300R drive is identical with the samples released by Inphase and is capable of storing the expected 300 GB of data on a single 5.25″ disc. The data transfer rate is around 20 MB/s meaning that it will take about 4 hours to complete a 300GB backup.

As expected the price still keeps high at the beginning. Rumors started to emerge from sources close to Inphase. The Tapestry optical drive should retail somewhere around $18,000, with $3,000 more than expected, while the 300 GB media should sell for $180 per disk.

My previous article was pretty much commented by users. I analyzed the options and opinions and I strongly hope the price will drop down in time for the unit to be accessible to more people, because 300GB of storage isn’t something you have every day.