Guest post by Though this drive is pretty much in the average consumers’ dreams (albeit a very tech-savvy average consumer) for at least the next decade or so, having one of these buggers would certainly make even those of us who have “seen it all” drool. It’s estimated that in a mere five years, laser-drive hybrids could be commercially available (for a hefty price, I wager), but only reaching the sluggish access time of 1Tbits/s. It is also estimated, however, that in the future beyond, we may be seeing more modern drives with a happy 100Tbits/s. Amazing what shedding a bit of laser light on a subject can do.
We likely wont see true laser HDD’s until about 5 years out or later, with hybrids comming in in the 3+ year mark. either way its going to be good. Quantum computing here we come (7+ years)
Solid-state drives have been around for 20 years and are only now becoming affordable for the desktop.
Making a Laser-based drive that will fit into a PC or laptop at a consumer price point?
Not in less than 10-20 years. I remember the promises of televisions that you could hang like a painting and would be cheap and would be available within 5 years – this was in 1974.
You tell me what year flat panels became affordable as TV sets.