Sanyo's new Blu-ray lasers double disc capacity

Some believe that optical media is on track for a slow and agonising demise, but Sanyo is keen to ensure that its death throes last as long as possible with the unveiling of a new 450mW blue laser diode that can burn Blu-ray discs with enough precision to write to four layers instead of the current two. That means you'll get double the storage capacity from a single disc - 100GB as opposed to 50GB - and write speeds increased to 12x. The write speed is particularly impressive given that it will allow you to fill up a disc with enough Bit Torrent downloads to keep the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) writing angry letters to your ISP for a year, in just ten minutes. The downside? It's going to take at least a couple of years for the technology to appear and by that time, legitimate downloads may well have taken over. Sanyo is currently chatting to hardware makers to encourage them to get the tech on board. Related Links - Sony's 400 Disc Blu-ray mega-changer  ... (link)