Is it possible?

[Jeremy Hughes]

Is it possible to create random access film-like optical recording using the technology of holographic memory? I'm not talking about digital encoding, I'm talking about microscopic images being recorded into a disc or something.

It's just something that popped into my head when I was watching 2057.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

So you're thinking something like microfilm/microfiche using holographic media? I don't see why it wouldn't work... Somewhat complicated, but I could see where individual images or video frames or whatever could be stored as very small physical images within a holographic disc, cube, etc... Data could be included on the location, angles, etc.. needed to reference each image. Could be interesting...

[Ace]

Thats essentially what microchips are! Images of circuitry at a ridiculously tiny scale.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Thats essentially what microchips are! Images of circuitry at a ridiculously tiny scale.

Yeah, but holographic media is 3D. You can change what you see simply by re-focusing or shifting your angle of view. This is how holographic storage works to cram even more data into a given space. Suddenly a CD/DVD sized disc of holographic nature can store several times as much information as a standard disc just by changing the angle of read/write laser. Which brings me back to something I read long ago (probably 10 years or so, back in college)... Since microchips/CPUs/etc.. are constructed via a photo-lithography process, it seems possible that powerful microprocessors could eventually become three-dimensional structures as well. I seem to remember reading something to that effect as one hypothesized solution from one of the guys at Intel proposed cramming more transistors into a computer chip by a holographic approach. ...At the time we were looking at 200MHz Pentium Pro CPUs and wondering how Intel could reach that mythical 1GHz barrier. :D

3D holographic microcircuits could be the next big thing in CPU evolution... Or it could just be science fiction. But current die-shrink practices will run out of room to shrink to in the near future. Anything much smaller than about 27nm and the electrons aren't going to stay confined to their intended circuits. ...Or so I've read. So Intel is moving to 45nm now. What happens in a few more years when they're pushing below 30nm processes and still need to cram more cores/cache/etc.. onto a CPU? Do they start going multi-dimensional? I think Intel already has a patent on this, but maybe I should look. heh.

[Ace]

Yeah, but holographic media is 3D. You can change what you see simply by re-focusing or shifting your angle of view. This is how holographic storage works to cram even more data into a given space. Suddenly a CD/DVD sized disc of holographic nature can store several times as much information as a standard disc just by changing the angle of read/write laser. Which brings me back to something I read long ago (probably 10 years or so, back in college)... Since microchips/CPUs/etc.. are constructed via a photo-lithography process, it seems possible that powerful microprocessors could eventually become three-dimensional structures as well. I seem to remember reading something to that effect as one hypothesized solution from one of the guys at Intel proposed cramming more transistors into a computer chip by a holographic approach. ...At the time we were looking at 200MHz Pentium Pro CPUs and wondering how Intel could reach that mythical 1GHz barrier. :D

3D holographic microcircuits could be the next big thing in CPU evolution... Or it could just be science fiction. But current die-shrink practices will run out of room to shrink to in the near future. Anything much smaller than about 27nm and the electrons aren't going to stay confined to their intended circuits. ...Or so I've read. So Intel is moving to 45nm now. What happens in a few more years when they're pushing below 30nm processes and still need to cram more cores/cache/etc.. onto a CPU? Do they start going multi-dimensional? I think Intel already has a patent on this, but maybe I should look. heh.

Thats quite interesting.. I was just browsing through slashdot, and it seems that conventional computing as we know it will come to an end sooner than we think:

Quantum Computer To Launch Next Week

"D-Wave Systems of British Columbia is all set to demonstrate a 16-qubit quantum computer (http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsID=7972&pagtype=all). Simple devices have been built in the lab before, and this is still a prototype, but it is a commercial project that aims to get quantum devices into computer rooms, solving tricky problems such as financial optimization. Most quantum computers have to be isolated from the outside world (look at them and they stop working). "

""It has been predicted that quantum computing will make current computer security obsolete, cracking any current cryptography scheme by providing an unlimited amount of simultaneous processing resources.""


TFA: http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/02/08/1355255.shtml

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Thats quite interesting.. I was just browsing through slashdot, and it seems that conventional computing as we know it will come to an end sooner than we think:

Whoa... :eek:

I'll believe it when I see it, I guess.. Considering quantum circuits, up until very recently weren't even powerful enough to drive a pocket calculator. But I'm all for it. Anything that can move computing forward. I would really like to render <hehe> my render farm obsolete. :D

[Jeremy Hughes]

Everything would work differently on a quantum computer though, right?

But I think that computers will be obsolete in the next millennium or so, when we unlock the true power of our brains and learn to use the field.

But back to the subject of holographic optical recordings. Are you saying that we could record true 3D images in it? I was thinking 2D in 3D space to optimize space. Have unspeakable resolution at amazing frame rates for incredible duration once you digitize.

[Petr Dvorak]

yea we are getting on the field of teleportation which can be used for probably fastest instant computing and encryption too ;)
Scientists from Innsbruck, Austria proved it few years ago.

Holographic storage is in the labs for couple years now and some is nearly on a market

Also atomic abacus is interesting :D
and so on...

Or you want to start talking about wetware or enzymatic computers? :D

[Jeremy Hughes]

Well, wouldn't something simpler like a DNA computer come sooner?