InPhase Technologies
Encyclopedia
InPhase Technologies is a technology company developing holographic storage devices and media. InPhase was spun out from Bell Labs
in 2000. Their technology eventually promises multiple terabyte
storage. In May 2008 the company was due to release their first reader, tapestry 300r, offering a storage capacity of 300 GB
, with transfer rates of 20 MB
/s in read write mode. However, the product was not released by this target date, marking the third time the company failed to release the reader on-time after previously setting release dates of late 2006, and then February 2007. As a result of these delays, InPhase was forced to cut a number of its workforce; currently there is no release date for the drive visible.
InPhase Technologies currently holds the record for "highest commercial data storage" by achieving 515 Gbit
per square inch. of media. Most recently the company broke the 1 terabyte
benchmark.
In February 2008, InPhase Technologies was granted a joint patent with video game company Nintendo
for a flexure
-based scanner for angle-based multiplexing
in a holographic storage system.
On March 16, 2010, Signal Lake acquired a majority stake in the remains of Longmont based InPhase.. In 2010, InPhase acquired digital holographic storage media manufacturing equipment from Hitachi Maxell in Tokyo, Japan. In 2011, InPhase acquired the assets of DSM AG in Westerstede, Germany; DSM designs, develops, manufactures, markets and supports digital libraries (autoloaders that can hold one disk drive and fifteen disks with a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, or libraries that can hold four disk drives and two hundred and forty (or more) disks) and a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, to be bundled with sales of drives and media. On October 18, 2011, InPhase filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization.
Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey shows a computer HAL with holographic digital storage; the astronaut protagonist in the movie has to remove memory banks in order to save his space ship and shut HAL down. The goal of 2001 was missed by the storage industry by a decade.
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in 2000. Their technology eventually promises multiple terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
storage. In May 2008 the company was due to release their first reader, tapestry 300r, offering a storage capacity of 300 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
, with transfer rates of 20 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
/s in read write mode. However, the product was not released by this target date, marking the third time the company failed to release the reader on-time after previously setting release dates of late 2006, and then February 2007. As a result of these delays, InPhase was forced to cut a number of its workforce; currently there is no release date for the drive visible.
InPhase Technologies currently holds the record for "highest commercial data storage" by achieving 515 Gbit
Gigabit
The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...
per square inch. of media. Most recently the company broke the 1 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
benchmark.
In February 2008, InPhase Technologies was granted a joint patent with video game company Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for a flexure
Bending
In engineering mechanics, bending characterizes the behavior of a slender structural element subjected to an external load applied perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the element. The structural element is assumed to be such that at least one of its dimensions is a small fraction, typically...
-based scanner for angle-based multiplexing
Multiplexing
The multiplexed signal is transmitted over a communication channel, which may be a physical transmission medium. The multiplexing divides the capacity of the low-level communication channel into several higher-level logical channels, one for each message signal or data stream to be transferred...
in a holographic storage system.
On March 16, 2010, Signal Lake acquired a majority stake in the remains of Longmont based InPhase.. In 2010, InPhase acquired digital holographic storage media manufacturing equipment from Hitachi Maxell in Tokyo, Japan. In 2011, InPhase acquired the assets of DSM AG in Westerstede, Germany; DSM designs, develops, manufactures, markets and supports digital libraries (autoloaders that can hold one disk drive and fifteen disks with a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, or libraries that can hold four disk drives and two hundred and forty (or more) disks) and a robot that moves media between slots and disk drives, to be bundled with sales of drives and media. On October 18, 2011, InPhase filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization.
Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey shows a computer HAL with holographic digital storage; the astronaut protagonist in the movie has to remove memory banks in order to save his space ship and shut HAL down. The goal of 2001 was missed by the storage industry by a decade.