Second Generation UDO Technology Progressing, Plasmon Says

Published: May 9, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Plasmon has completed the first phase of development of the second generation of Ultra Density Optical (UDO) technology, and is on track to deliver UDO products with 60GB media capacity and 12 MB per second data transfer rates by April 2007, the company announced last week. That is good news for Plasmon, which has been disappointed so far with sales of its first generation UDO products.

Plasmon's UDO drives are based on developments in laser research conducted by the Japanese company Nichia, which originally developed its blue-light laser to enable a new generation of DVD drives for high definition television (HDTV) programs. After securing the exclusive rights to develop Blu-Ray into a product for the commercial sector, it set out developing first generation UDO technology, which was completed, late, in 2004.

Early on, Plasmon secured as a partner IBM, which foresaw 5.25-inch UDO as a replacement for aging Magneto Optical (MO) technology, particularly among iSeries shops, and particularly in the healthcare sector. While UDO's capacities and data transfer rates pale in comparison to more widely used tape technology, UDO has the benefit of longevity, as UDO media can last 50 years or longer. It also supports write-once, read-many (WORM) capabilities.

However, demand hasn't fully materialized to UDO's expectations, at least for the first-generation technology, and Plasmon has publicly said it's been disappointed in UDO sales. The company is moving forward with plans for a second generation of UDO, which was originally slated to be ready by 2005, as well as third and fourth generations. The 120GB, third-generation version was originally mapped out for 2007, but obviously Plasmon isn't going to hit this point in its roadmap, either. It mentioned a 240 GB product in last week's announcement, but no timeline was provided.

Interestingly, while development of industrial Blu-Ray technology has been slower since Plasmon's original January 2003 prognostications), development of Blu-Ray technology has progressed quickly in the consumer high definition DVD market progressed, where it's now pitted against the rival red-laser HD-DVD standard in an industry slugfest. Maybe a clear winner will come from it that will benefit the commercial IT market.