Back in July, Pioneer announced that it had developed the world's first 16-layer optical disc with a capacity of 400GB. Following new research conducted by its engineers in Japan, the company has now announced that a 20-layer 500GB disc is feasible.

A 20-layer optical disc is now viable, following research by our team of engineers at Pioneer HQ, Tokyo. Each layer of the disc can store 25GB of information to provide a mammoth 500GB of storage.

The news follows the International Symposium on Optical Memory (ISOM) and Optical Data Storage, held during July in Hawaii, where Pioneer Corporation presented its research, defining draft specifications for the 500 GB disc.

The ISOM had previously outlined the industry objective of creating a 20-layer disc to be available between 2010-2012.

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Micron recently announced its next-generation RealSSD solid state drives (SSDs) for enterprise computing and notebook applications. The enterprise-class RealSSD P200 is available in capacities up to 128GB and is capable of sequential read and write speeds of 250MB/s. The client-focused RealSSD C200 is available in 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors in capacities up to 256GB.

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Memorex recently announced its new line of portable hard drives. The Essential TravelDrive delivers up to 320GB of capacity and is available in four nature-inspired colors.

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Memorex, the leading brand of optical media at U.S. retail and a portfolio brand of Imation Corp (NYSE: IMN), today introduces the Essential TravelDrive(TM), the latest addition to its award-winning line of portable storage devices. The USB-based product features 2.5-inch hard drive technology, which delivers up to 320 GB of capacity, is available in several vibrant colors and easily fits into a pocketbook or purse.

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NEC Electronics announced today that it has developed the world's first single-chip LSI for Blu-ray Disc players. Combining the frontend functions of the SCOMBO/UM2P with the backend functions of the EMMA3P, the EMMA3PF has an analog circuit to process signals from the optical pickup, a decoding circuit for encoded video and audio and an HDMI to output video and audio. On top of that, the chip supports BD-ROM Profile 2.0, the latest Blu-ray Disc specification.

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