The Blu-ray Disc Association has approved the BDXL standard this week, meaning quad-layer 128GB Blu-ray discs are on the way.
BDXL also allows for triple-layer BDs with 100GB capacity.
Current Blu-ray players are not compatible with BDXL, and there are no players yet in the works with support for the new standard. When they do become available, BDXL players will support current single and double-layer BD, as well.
For now, the format is targeted “at professional applications such as archiving and medial imaging,” says TG.
BDXL should hit the mainstream, however, when 3D Blu-ray content hits mainstream, as that content will need the extra space.
Says BDA committee chair Victor Matsuda: “The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity.”
Result for: storage capacity
The Usenet provider Newshosting announced this week that they had upped binary retention to 400 days for all their service plans.
The new milestone is “made possible by recently implemented storage capacity upgrades to the Newshosting datacenters worldwide.”
The company said they intent to continue building retention, “far above and beyond” 400 days.
Retention, in relation to newsgroups, is the amount of time a posted item remains posted. Newshosting also offers 2 years retention for text newsgroups alongside the 400 for binary.
You can check their site here: Newshosting
Result for: storage capacity
Seagate has shipped the new Barracuda XT hard drive with 2TB of storage capacity, 64MB cache, spindle speed of 7200RPM and its most notable feature of SATA 3.0 - or put another way - up to 6Gb/s transfer rate. Of course, in order to benefit from the SATA interface in the drive, you will need a compatible motherboard, such as an Intel P55-equipped motherboard.
The drive is, of course, backward compatible with older revisions of the SATA interface, meaning you can buy one and avoid paying for the latest motherboards, like those shown off recently at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, until you are ready. The 2GB capacity is also an attractive feature, but Seagate was beaten to that goal by Western Digital.
Nevertheless, it is the second Seagate 2TB drive, with the Barracuda LP announced in April (with spindle speed of just 5900RPM for low power consumption). Seagate expects the new drives to be used in high performance servers or high end gaming rigs for the near future. However, it’s $299 price tag might ruin its appeal for the moment.
