Wikipedia

Archival Disc

Not to be confused with Optical Disc Archive.

Archival Disc (AD) is the trademarked name of a discontinued optical disc storage medium designed by Sony and Panasonic for long-term digital storage. First announced on 10 March 2014 and introduced in the second quarter of 2015, the discs were intended to withstand changes in temperature and humidity, in addition to dust and water, ensuring that the disc would be readable for at least 50 years.[2] The agreement between Sony and Panasonic to jointly develop the next generation optical media standard was first announced on 29 July 2013.[3] The discs were mass-produced by Panasonic in 2016.[4] The product is discontinued as of 2024.[5][6] The two companies have since collaborated on the development of another format, Optical Disc Archive.

Archival Disc
Media typeOptical disc
EncodingSame as Blu-ray for data, different disc metadata format
Capacity300 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB[1]
Block size2048 bytes
Read mechanism155-405 nm diode laser, Numerical Aperture NA=0.85[1]
Write mechanism405 nm diode laser
StandardArchival Disc whitepaper v1
Developed by
Dimensions120 mm (4.7 in) diameter
1.2 mm thickness[2]
Weight16 grams (0.56 oz)
UsageLong-term data storage
Extended fromBlu-ray Disc
ReleasedQ2 2015

Specifications

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At first, the discs were designed to hold 300 gigabytes of data, then a second version of the discs could hold up to 500 gigabytes, and eventually a third version of the discs could store up to one terabyte of data, based on the roadmap plans of both companies.[1][2][7][8]

The Archival Disc standard jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic used signal processing technologies such as narrow track pitch crosstalk cancellation, high linear density inter-symbol interference cancellation and multi-level recording. The disc structure features dual sides, with three layers on each side, and a land and groove format. The track pitch is 0.225 μm, the data bit length is 79.5 nm, and the standard will utilise the method of Reed–Solomon Code error correction.

In 2019, Sony and Panasonic released a third-generation Optical Disc Archival.[9] In 2020, Sony began shipping their Gen3 PetaSite Optical Disc Archive, which could store up to 2.9 PB of data.[10][11]

Roadmap

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In the summer of 2015, Sony was scheduled to release a roadmap plan[12] to increase Archival Disc capacity from 300GB to 1TB per disc. A release timeline for larger-capacity discs was not released as of 2022.[needs update]

Use

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Sony expected the new standard to see usage in the film industry (such as storage of 4K resolution audiovisual data[13]), archival services, and cloud data centres handling big data.[1] The disc format was not intended as a consumer storage medium as of 2014, but rather for professional-level data archives.[2] In order to reach a larger capacity whilst ensuring higher playback signal quality, the standard will employ crosstalk cancellation and partial-response maximum-likelihood (PRML) signal processing.[1] Both companies marketed the optical format under their respective brands.

Sony used Archival Disc in their Optical Disc Archive professional archival product range, and aimed to create at least a 6-TB storage medium. As of 2020, they offered 5.5 TB Optical Disc Archive Cartridges.[14][15][16]

In 2016 a use case for Archival Disc was projected for cold data storage within the datacenter.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "'Archival Disc' standard formulated for professional-use next-generation optical discs" (Press release). Sony Corporation. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
  2. ^ a b c d Hornyak, Tim (2014-03-10). "Sony, Panasonic develop 300GB to 1TB 'Archival Disc' for 50 year-plus storage". PC World. IDG. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
  3. ^ Plafke, James (29 July 2013). "Sony and Panasonic join forces to create 300GB+ optical disc by 2015 - ExtremeTech". Extremetech. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  4. ^ "Supporting the IoT/Big Data Era with the "Optical Disc Data Archiving" - the High Capacity High Speed Challenge". Panasonic. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Scalable Library - Sony Pro". Sony Professional. 2024-09-27.
  6. ^ "Standalone Drives - Sony Pro". Sony Professional. 2024-09-27.
  7. ^ Smith, Mat (2014-03-10). "Sony and Panasonic announce the Archival Disc, a new optical disc standard for long-term storage". Engadget. AOL Inc. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
  8. ^ Moscaritolo, Angela (2014-03-10). "Sony, Panasonic Tip 300GB – 1TB Archival Storage Disc". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2014-03-21.
  9. ^ "Sony Optical Disc Archive Generation 3". Newsshooter. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  10. ^ Phil, Kurz (2020-06-04). "Sony Begins Delivery of PetaSite Optical Disc Archive". TVTechnology. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  11. ^ "Sony's new optical disk can store data for 100 years". HT Tech. 2020-06-15. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  12. ^ "Sony Moves Industry toward the Creation of New Mass-Storage Optical Disc Archive Solutions" (Press release). Sony Corporation. 2012-04-16.
  13. ^ "Blu-ray-Nachfolger: Archival Disc mit 300 GB vorgestellt". MacTechNews (in German). 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-03-22.
  14. ^ June 2020, Phil Kurz 04 (4 June 2020). "Sony Begins Delivery of PetaSite Optical Disc Archive". TVTechnology. Retrieved 2020-12-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ June 2020, Desire Athow 15 (15 June 2020). "Here's what Sony's million gigabyte storage cabinet looks like". TechRadar. Retrieved 2020-12-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ "Sony Optical Disc Archive Generation 3". Newsshooter. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  17. ^ "Panasonic Develops freeze-ray Optical Disc-Based Data Archive System for Data Centers in Collaboration with Facebook" (Press release). Panasonic Corporation. 2015-01-05. Archived from the original on February 14, 2018.
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