Nintendo looking into holographic storage solutions...

“… disclosure is herein made that the claimed invention was made pursuant to a Joint Research Agreement as defined in 35 U.S.C. 103 (c)(3), that was in effect on or before the date the claimed invention was made, and as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of the Joint Research Agreement, by or on the behalf of Nintendo Co., and InPhase Technologies, Inc.” Joint Research Agreement “… a written contract, grant, or cooperative agreement entered into by two or more persons or entities for the performance of experimental, developmental, or research work in the field of the claimed invention.”

A joint research agreement between Nintendo and InPhase Technologies suggests a radical future storage approach...

What?Dark_Link142

Read.

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?Packt

Read.

I read.

What?Dark_Link142

My thoughts exactly.

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?KingBowser91

My thoughts exactly.

[QUOTE="KingBowser91"]

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?Jdog30

My thoughts exactly.

They're not satisfied with only a memory unit just for Wii. They want it to work for every Nintendo system for the rest of your life.

Read,Read, and Read

This is a VERY cheap, effective, and inventive solution with ZERO drawbacks (because our reader only costs $250 thank you mam). Let's just hope it is backwards compatible, because everyone in the industry knows that Nintendo has made older models obsolete in the past.

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but did anyone notice the thumbnail for this picture, and the fact that it was added in September of 05? It seems Wii Motion Plus has been in the works far longer than anyone realized.

EDIT: Unless its just an early model for the Nunchuck jack. Can't really tell.

Less InPhase, more Optware.thriteenthmonke

Agreed, but by now everyone understands how Nintendo only relates to companies like them. This wiki article characterizes just how symbotic the two are about botched release dates.

I'm sure Nintendo loves teasing their fans more and more every second.

[QUOTE="Jdog30"][QUOTE="KingBowser91"]

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?SirSpudly

My thoughts exactly.

They're not satisfied with only a memory unit just for Wii. They want it to work for every Nintendo system for the rest of your life.

Read,Read, and Read

This is a VERY cheap, effective, and inventive solution with ZERO drawbacks (because our reader only costs $250 thank you mam). Let's just hope it is backwards compatible, because everyone in the industry knows that Nintendo has made older models obsolete in the past.

Read it, read it, and read it.

Sounds very interesting. This may not only satisfy Wii owners with storage problems, but introduce a whole new method of storage altogether.

"A brief education courtesy of Wikipedia reveals that holographic storage requires a laser to be split into two beams. Data to be stored is encoded onto the signal beam via the special light modulator, before converging with the reference beam and stored onto a photosensitive medium. Reading the data from the medium relies upon a beam being emitted onto the medium at precisely the same angle, wavelength, and position of the reference beam."

From what I understand, it's a storage solution that doesn't use any hardware like a HDD or a USB stick. Nintendo would have to explain to the people how to use it because I really don't know how it would work on Wii.

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but did anyone notice the thumbnail for this picture, and the fact that it was added in September of 05? It seems Wii Motion Plus has been in the works far longer than anyone realized.

creepy_mike

I read about this on Wikipedia.

I saw this:

The theoretical limits for the storage density of this technique are approximately tens of terabits (1 terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes) per cubic centimeter.

Could this technology provide that kind of storage?

- Holographic HD Storage Overview (video)

- Holographic HD Storage Explained (video)

Talk about confusing...toadster101

[QUOTE="KingBowser91"]

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?Jdog30

My thoughts exactly.

Okay, put is simple.

If this rumour is true, Nintendo might make a massive storage device (Not big in size, but big how much it can store.)

In theory, holographic storage can hold up to tens of Tetras. Now, let's put to an PS3 equivilant. PS3 has about 80 GB depending on what you get.

Now, 1 Tetra is equal to 1,000 Gigabytes, and I'll let people take that however they wish to.

if you mean terabyte, then ur argument is correct

anyways, you just finished explaining me what those weird discs are. i dont see that working unless we have 2 different readers: 1 for games and 1 for storage.

if you mean terabyte, then ur argument is correct

anyways, you just finished explaining me what those weird discs are. i dont see that working unless we have 2 different readers: 1 for games and 1 for storage.

BrunoBRS

Indeed...and I feel stupid now. xD I don't why I used Tetra, I'm thinking of the prefixes for Chemical naming and such. My bad.

What's the point anyway? We haven't even maxed-out the Blu-Ray. Besides, Holographic memory is very expensive...

No game is ever going to fil up 1000GB this gen or even the next one. Leave Holographic storage for the 10th generation.

How could the holo-discs (Or whatever they're called) be used for memory storage if the wii's drive is read-only? Would we have to attach a new disc drive for this?Orange_Bulborb

They didn't say it would be this gen.

[QUOTE="SirSpudly"][QUOTE="Jdog30"][QUOTE="KingBowser91"]

[QUOTE="Dark_Link142"]What?Dark_Link142

My thoughts exactly.

They're not satisfied with only a memory unit just for Wii. They want it to work for every Nintendo system for the rest of your life.

Read,Read, and Read

This is a VERY cheap, effective, and inventive solution with ZERO drawbacks (because our reader only costs $250 thank you mam). Let's just hope it is backwards compatible, because everyone in the industry knows that Nintendo has made older models obsolete in the past.

Read it, read it, and read it.

Sounds very interesting. This may not only satisfy Wii owners with storage problems, but introduce a whole new method of storage altogether.

At first I thought this was a joke, but i'm very suprised to find out this is true, maybe. But who would pay this kind of money for holographic memory.randomguy15

What everyone needs to understand is that the media to copy information is extremely cheap (literally 30 GB for 100 yen or one American dollar), it is the reader itself that makes the product so expensive. Funny really, this technology has been announced since 2005 and we're still calling it new.

If Nintendo is investing, I imagine priority 1 is to retrofit such cheap media into what the Wii already has. Priority 2 is to market it without smelling of cheap snake oil. A lot of people here can't believe that so much can cost so little, so putting a Nintendo logo might shoot up the price $20.

Not that Nintendo ever had a problem selling Zelda cereal. Maybe we'll get stickers in this box too.

What's the point anyway? We haven't even maxed-out the Blu-Ray. Besides, Holographic memory is very expensive...

No game is ever going to fil up 1000GB this gen or even the next one. Leave Holographic storage for the 10th generation.

lancea34

who said its going to be used to play games? its storage, completely different from blu ray, which is the current ultimate evolution of the cartridge. holo-discs would be for storage of data, like a biiiiiig HDD. that way you could install all ur games to cut loading times.

[QUOTE="lancea34"]

What's the point anyway? We haven't even maxed-out the Blu-Ray. Besides, Holographic memory is very expensive...

No game is ever going to fil up 1000GB this gen or even the next one. Leave Holographic storage for the 10th generation.

BrunoBRS

who said its going to be used to play games? its storage, completely different from blu ray, which is the current ultimate evolution of the cartridge. holo-discs would be for storage of data, like a biiiiiig HDD. that way you could install all ur games to cut loading times.

Use it as a HDD? That sounds better, but isn't it expensive? Wouldn't it rise the next console's price a lot?

[QUOTE="BrunoBRS"][QUOTE="lancea34"]

What's the point anyway? We haven't even maxed-out the Blu-Ray. Besides, Holographic memory is very expensive...

No game is ever going to fil up 1000GB this gen or even the next one. Leave Holographic storage for the 10th generation.

lancea34

who said its going to be used to play games? its storage, completely different from blu ray, which is the current ultimate evolution of the cartridge. holo-discs would be for storage of data, like a biiiiiig HDD. that way you could install all ur games to cut loading times.

Use it as a HDD? That sounds better, but isn't it expensive? Wouldn't it rise the next console's price a lot?

but if nintendo added tons of motion-sensing in a remote control and sell it relatively cheap, they may find a solution

those discs are pretty expensive considering i can get 1TG for 200.

but if nintendo does use holographic storage, i think that'd be pretty cool. and no one would have an arguement for not having enough space anymore.

Not going to happen for another couple generations.

If Nintendo is deciding to utilize this for one of their systems they have to figure out away to get a $18 000 piece of equipment into the system and still make it affordable.

wow, if Nintendo ever decides to use this when the drive are at an affordable price, we will probably be having games in GC sized discs again or in a card shape(think a pokemon card or something for shape) since apparently they can be any shape. LINK2207

One problem however is that if they wish to have BC with the Wii, the drive will still need to be large enough to accept regular sized discs.

[QUOTE="LINK2207"]wow, if Nintendo ever decides to use this when the drive are at an affordable price, we will probably be having games in GC sized discs again or in a card shape(think a pokemon card or something for shape) since apparently they can be any shape. ThePlothole

One problem however is that if they wish to have BC with the Wii, the drive will still need to be large enough to accept regular sized discs.

[QUOTE="ThePlothole"][QUOTE="LINK2207"]wow, if Nintendo ever decides to use this when the drive are at an affordable price, we will probably be having games in GC sized discs again or in a card shape(think a pokemon card or something for shape) since apparently they can be any shape. LINK2207

One problem however is that if they wish to have BC with the Wii, the drive will still need to be large enough to accept regular sized discs.

If that were the case, the easiest solution would be to have both laser systems in the same drive (similar to how early DVD drives played CDs). Having two completely separate drives wouldn't be economical.