Sony and Panasonic have announced they are working together on the development of a next-generation, high-capacity optical disc format.
The companies hope to release new optical discs with a recording storage capacity of "at least 300GB" by 2015, six times the capacity of Blu-ray discs.
Digital files and streaming have seen a gradual decline in demand for software discs, but Sony and Panasonic say this new standard is being built for professional use, specifically long-term digital data storage.
In a joint release, the companies said: "Optical discs have excellent properties to protect them against the environment... they also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve."
Much larger volumes of storage are expected to be required in the future both amongst broadcast and motion picture industries but also cloud data centers.
Of course a new optical disc capable of storing much larger amounts of data could ultimately make its way on to the consumer market, with 4K Ultra HD video the most obvious material, if indeed 4K ever gets a disc format.
by Joe Cox
