Despite the many places in our world of information in which a "gigabyte" is the relevant unit of measure, none is as important as the future of the "digital paper" used for the distribution, storage and writing of bits.

Unfortunately, CDs, whose capacity was measured in hundreds of megabytes, were fine for the low data rate content of stereo music. But, they were inadequate to contain the Standard Definition television resolutions for two to three hours of quality movies from Hollywood. Video-CDs were born digitally brain-dead, way back then.

When the light-emitting laser-diode wavelength (color) used in CDs (which was in the "infra-red" range) was made shorter, and pushed into the visible (red) portion of the spectrum, the DVD format was born. CDs would never have been invented if science could have first figured out how to make RED laser-diodes (infra-red-diodes were easy to make). To do video/movies in those days, it took a 12 inch Videodisc illuminated by a large and expensive Helium-Neon gas laser. And that gave only an hour of analog video per side of the disc... That too, was another non-starter. Worse yet, the only videodisc recorders on the market cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The industrial research effort to invent the RED laser-diode was gigantic, and ultimately successful. Smaller spots made on a disc with shorter (red) wavelengths of light permitted about 4 gigabytes of user data to be put on a single layer of a plastic disc. But, even THAT was not enough to keep Hollywood happy. So the Warner Brothers disc-making factory perfected the idea of gluing two thin discs together to give more than enough storage capacity (9 gigabytes). Hence, a full length movie, at full Standard Definition TV resolutions, along with many extra files to support the publication of movies, could be put on a cheaply manufactured medium. The true industrial breakthrough was NOT that the picture quality was good, but that the cost of disc manufacture was so low, compared to VHS tapes that up to that point had to be duplicated via slow recording techniques.

However, when it came to RECORDING "DATA" files that are the size of a full resolution movie, the two-disc-layer approach to melting small spots on the disc became VERY difficult for many reasons. THAT IS, the DVD format was NEVER intended to be a recording format. Two layers of data were an excellent compromise for the manufacturing techniques based on molding a thin disc of polycarbonate plastic at very high production speeds necessary for very large numbers of copies to be sold. But when the need was to RECORD and ERASE many gigabytes, the idea of gluing two "reflective" discs together was much more difficult than was practical for a cheap recording medium. Hence, recording movies to DVDs never became a popular consumer behavior.

Throughout this period, many companies (including my former employer, 3M) like Bell Labs (AT&T), Panasonic and Sony struggled to make light emitting diodes "lase" at an even shorter wavelength which would permit lots of "gigabytes" to be recorded to a single layer of a relatively small disc (of the CD-legacy diameter). Finally, a dedicated PhD designed a new manufacturing technique for making "diodes" that would emit the blue-violet wavelength of light at power levels sufficient to melt very thin layers of metal, which was sufficient to store many tens of gigabytes of data.

Unfortunately, there was very little need/demand for such a data storage technique. And worse, the Hollywood studios were making billions of dollars selling DVD discs, one at a time, with one movie on each disc. They had almost NO interest in supporting a newer, more capacious format that used a difficult-to-make (hence expensive) blue laser-diode which used a disc that was ALSO much more difficult to manufacture. Hence the ability to record tens of gigabytes on a "digital paper" never became the main product concept for those who made consumer-entertainment electronic products.

But then FINALLY along came the support of high definition television broadcasting, with its problem that they had nothing to broadcast in High Def, so consumers had no interest in buying very expensive CRT based television sets capable of "high definition" resolutions. Worse, the broadcasters could only agreed to a standard that had 21 different definitions of what a "high definition" broadcast should be.

And worser yet, there were, and remain, SEVERAL digital video compression techniques competing to fit a High Def. transmission into the approximately 20 megabit/sec. bandwidth pipe of an FCC-licensed channel for TV broadcast. Too many technical options and variables prevented High Def from becoming a serious format for national television networks. Sure, the Super-Bowl might be fun to watch in HD in some sports-bar, once-a-year, but what would be the content that is sufficiently compelling to encourage people to buy HD TV sets? None-existed.

BUT, the real breakthrough came from the world that made calculators, and laptop computers which used Liquid Crystal Displays. Once the LCD manufacturing technologies became low cost and done in high volume, the Consumer Electronics Industry discovered that a FLAT panel TV display can be made very big and very thin; thin enough hang on the wall and be the size of a window. Sure, such a display made playing back existing DVD movies look "good enough." So, a market emerged for screens that had the resolution and signal processing (MPEG-HD de-compression) appropriate for receiving broadcast High Definition content. That proved that SD-DVDs were "good enough" to play on the new super expensive flat-panel TV sets. The many-gigabyte industry was off to a very slow start.

BUT then along came a company called Pixar (owned by Sir Steve Jobs) that pushed the computer graphics technology envelop enough to produce a feature-length, animated movie in High Definition resolutions. And then the whole world changed.

The movie "Toy Story" was distributed by Disney, and it became VERY clear and impressive that THIS movie had overwhelmingly impressive visual detail when played from a disc that had highly compressed data sufficient to fit onto a two layer "BLU-RAY" disc format developed and promoted by Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic. Thanks to Disney having content that actually was worth watching, and their support for the High Definition techniques used in making Blu-ray discs, a player was now possible to be made by the millions for consumer entertainment. A market was born, alive and well.

All that leads us to the point of "gigabytes"... Once the techniques of blue lasers and digital compression and multi-layers of media became practical, we got the opportunity to RECORD 128 GIGABYTES of data to a disc that is no larger than an old fashioned CD. Of course, to do that, it requires a newer/better BD burner that pushes the envelope. The media is still very expensive (perhaps it will always be "too expensive"), but writing large amounts of data to a disc that could be easily duplicated is now possible. And, now the real challenge is to find a proper market-use for such technology.

Unknown to most in the computer/Internet/telephone industries, this latest optical disc recording technology format is to be the "archive" material for bits that originate from the many Internet (cloud) sources world wide. Even more important, such a digital media burner and disc format can easily be designed into a cheap "jukebox" that would store hundreds (if not thousands) of 100+ gigabyte discs. The Internet is NOT a safe, private, secure place to keep important data. GIGMEDIA CONSULTING knows how to design and market the next and LAST new medium that will keep content safe for most of this 21st century.