Source: Nintendo might solve storage issue with holograms
- July 31, 2008 07:49 AM PST
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A recent Nintendo patent filing hints that Nintendo is thinking outside the box to solve the Wii storage issue.
Holodeck or holo-storage?
It might sound more Star Trek: The Next Generation than video games, but Nintendo is apparently looking into the growing field of holographic storage to solve the Wii storage issue.
Holographic storage is a new way of storing data in which that data is contained in a 3-D space, as opposed to on the surface of a disk, as is the case in the PS3 or Xbox 360's HDDs. The technique is pretty cutting edge, but once it becomes mainstream it could be capable of mutli-terabyte storage. That's a lot of copies of WiiWare beer pong.
Where Nintendo comes into this story is that its name has appeared alongside holographic storage company InPhase Technologies on a joint patent filing. The filing is for a scanner to read holographic discs.
It's an interesting fix to a growing problem for Wii owners, but we have to ask if Nintendo is using an atom bomb to address this issue, when what they really need is a hammer.
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- Jul 31 2008 at 07:14:13:AM PST
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How about they just give us an HDD that looks like the stand that it sits on and plugs into the USB port. It would still be stylish and it would solve the problem.
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Now thats some kick ass news not just for Nintendo but for those people that have a lot of stuff to store.
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...But I think Nintendo is looking at this for the next system, that technology is pretty new and pricey right now.
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AANTHUNDER Posted at: 07/31/08 at 7:17 AM PST ...But I think Nintendo is looking at this for the next system, that technology is pretty new and pricey right now.Yeah I was just thinking that myself, a holographic storage system capable of storing terabytes of information. That's got to be hundreds if not a couple thousand dollars.
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honestly.. it's like trying to kill a housefly with a nuke.. why don't they just do a firmware update so that it can recognize a USB 2.0 external harddrive. Only thing people really have to store data wise on the wii is just maybe Mii's and retro downloads.. Somehow I doubt this data is expansive enough to rapidly fill a 1TB harddrive.
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I hate how GamePro writes that they're doing this to solve the Wii's lack of hard drive problem, when this is obviously something that won't be available until after the Wii is dead. Plus it's an optical disk, not a hard drive type of device that you can store stuff in. Wording it like that it's just going to cause people here to start saying stuff like, "Why not just give us a hard drive, etc."
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im thinking its for the next console. how much would this cost us if it came out like in 3 months? this is insane!
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I've known about Holographic Versatile Disc for years, and it's been in the market for years, only that the player cost like $15,000 and the blank disks cost like $120 dollars. I've always thought Blu Ray was doomed because eventually the price would go down. With memory prices being lower and lower, why not go back to cartridges. Can you imagine a 16gb DS sized cartridge with absolutely no loading time? No loading time would be revolutionary.
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