Source : Ars technicaWhereas the current Blu-ray discs are satisfied with two layers, Pioneer recently announced to have succeeded in producing media which contain 20 layers, and thus to reach 500 GB and to see coming head to head with the holographic storage that promises much in term of capacity.
The technology used is very similar to that already present in the current devices. But it is too much to hope that a simple update of firmware is enough to support this high number of layers. It is more probable that the readers of the systems would need improving making it possible to focus precisely on a given layer and to limit the interferences related to the many adjacent layers.
Pionner hopes now to succeed in validating this technology by Blu-ray Disc association and make a standard for the future, when these capacities will have an outlet.
[translation by crispin