Maxell announces 300GB holographic discs

WOW.. thats cool :) i dont think ill be able to buy one of the drives that can read the disc, but i can buy the disc, and show off to my friends that i have 300gb in my hand :)

This is sick. Hd-dvd and bluray are not even out yet and they start to hype a new format. I remember when I first saw dvd hype. I thought that nobody will ever need that much storage space. Well now I think that hdd's under 200gb are small.

300GB!!!!!!!! What speed do they run at?? may as well dump the HDD :)

300GB!!!!!!!! What speed do they run at?? may as well dump the HDD :)

hey I remember when I changed out from a 50 baud to a 300 baud. At the time the complete theoretical upper limit for non industrial data transmission was considered to be 1200 baud (1/40th of old 56.6k dail up), as this was the fastest a human could read an ascii stream! At the time my computer had two 70k disks, and hard drives of 10 megs and and floppies of 320k were as pie in the sky as this 300gig. Do we need 300 gig on on optical? sure! I have about two t-bytes on my home network and could easily see having 100 tbytes in a few years.

We used to talk in Kb's then Mb's now Gb's next Tb's (the future Pb's - Petabite's) :-D

This is Fcuking insane, who needs that much space?

this will help the corperate side of it management... not the home user.. I for one wouldnot want this for my house Id be backing up everything from one type to another... and for what because they can put more storage on a cd or dvd how many people will buy it and can you bring the disk to a freinds house to play something probley not only die hard techs will have to have one ... hey Im still waithing for the duallayer disks to come down in price whats this monster going to set me back... really we dont need to transfer or stuff again what we need is to protect it from getting damaged some one come up with a way for us to save our cds+dvds from scratches that works then I'll buy.....

300 GB is awesome. Lots of companies could use that as a backup method. Backups are System Administrators biggest worries - losing the data and being responsible for it. Tape backups are slow...expensive for how long they've been around. Larger backup media for corporations are needed. I remember when the first burner was over $10 000 - pinnacle. This will come down...in years. Obviously from a normal consumer point of view, this is not needed. Overkill for most end users. Only great for corporation with LOTS of data. I read months ago, another company was jibbering and jabbering about the same thing, but their size was 50 GIG on a small compact like flash card u slip in and out. Not sure the status of it now...but it was not a cdrom. 27 GB is not enough for the corporate world. And even at that, i gave over 200 GB of images saved on harddrives of various purchased games for safe keeping. As a consumer, that would be one disc backup. Its along way off for the price to come down. Too bad. Anywayz....thats only my opinion.

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(the future Pb's - Petabite's) :-D

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Apparently, within a few years they will have storage space of up to 1.6 TB with transfer speeds of 120 mb/s But for now, they have to settle with 300 gb and 20 mb/s transfers. BOO.

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AIR LAWN, NJ (November 18, 2005) Maxell Corporation of America, the technological leader in advanced recordable media, and InPhase Technologies are bringing a revolutionary technology to market - holographic media. With uncompressed storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage and archival requirements. Holographic data storage is superior to existing disc and hard drive technologies, and is also competitive against tape technologies in capacities and transfer rate. In addition, it offers a 50+ year media archive life and random data access. Finally, the media is expected to have the lowest cost per gigabyte of any commercial quality removable storage. "Holographic media makes it possible for millions of pages of information and high definition images to be held on one small, relatively inexpensive disc," said Steven Pofcher, senior marketing manager at Maxell. "Imagine having a person's entire medical history, complete with MRI images, or storing a broadcast network's entire HD Library on a single disc. These are both possible with holographic technology, which has such large capacity that approximately a half million 300-page books can be stored on a single disc." Holographic recording technology utilizes intersecting signal and reference laser beams to store data in a number of 3D hologram images capable of saving hundreds of data pages in a single location. One 5¼ inch-diameter optical disc can store up to 150 million pages - more than 63 times the capacity of DVD. Also, with holographic recording, a multiple of form factors, such as discs, cards, etc., and laser wavelengths (red, green, and blue) can be used. "Combining high storage densities and fast transfer rates with durable, reliable, low cost media, Holographic technology is poised to become a compelling choice for next-generation storage and content distribution needs," said Liz Murphy, vice president of marketing for InPhase Technologies. "Unlike other technologies that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light. This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices." The first generation of holographic media with 300 GB of storage capacity and a 20 MBPs Transfer Rate is scheduled for release in late 2006. For more information on Maxell products, please visit Maxell's Web site, www.maxell-data.com. About Maxell A technology and marketing leader in advanced recordable media products since 1969, Maxell Corporation of America is a full-line manufacturer of digital and analog media products for the data storage, consumer and broadcast markets. Maxell's data storage group provides one of the industry's broadest lines of premium digital recording media, including DLTtape, Super DLTtape, LTO Ultrium and DDS data cartridges, and is a full-line supplier of recordable DVD media, including DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM, as well as CD-R/RW media. All Maxell data storage products are backed by a lifetime limited warranty and 24-hour toll-free technical support. Additional information on Maxell can be found on the company's Web site: www.maxell-data.com.

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COOL!!!.. 300GB.. But the device is too expensive it comes approximately to Six Lakhs Seventy Five Thousand in Indian currency, i probably would have to sell my house to buy that.

omg this is sick i can't wait screw BR and HD wait for Holographic this is the disk for next generation.

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... hey Im still waithing for the duallayer disks to come down in price whats this monster going to set me back..

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@ mystic: They do make protectors, they're called D-Skin's: http://www.d-skin.com/intro.html Man, that's a lot of space in a very small amout of space. :) This totally beats out MO disks, which holds 230GB max, but only has like 8MB/s transfer rate. Although, the drives are cheaper, around $200 or something. Hopefully, they will come out with a cheaper drive, but the media isn't that expensive compared to HDD right now. I spent US$158 on a 300GB HDD recently. Well, I'll just wait until they do get cheaper, cuz I do need to back up my stuff. I can't keep buying a 300GB HDD every year to hold all my stuff. :)

"screw BR and HD wait for Holographic this is the disk for next generation." well, this Holographic disk, with its price and capacity, seems to be directed to corporations rather than home users. It would be very cool to use it to back up servers, especially those network administrators who are still using tape backups, you know what I mean... but let's be reallistic, in the next couple of years I don't think we are going to see video games that require 300 Gb.... same thing with movies... I mean, you can probably get the whole 6 episodes of star wars, with DTS audio, extras, and even the bonus documentary in less than 70 GB.... so for our "next-gen" of disks we should be fine with blu ray and HD.

pft this technology won't be used to replace cd/dvd's at all..it is the future of hard drives not the removeable media...I mean...how would a movie company sell a movie...$120 for super super impossible blow ur mind and kill yourself after quality? It's stupid to express the idea that it would!

<i> This is Fcuking insane, who needs that much space?</i> My point above was people thought it was insane ot have over 1200 baud net connections for non commercial users. indeed all teh telco tarrifs set up in the early 1980's were based ont hat limit. so why would the average boradband user today have a connection 3,000, yes three thousand times faster? the answer is simple the need for broadbnd 20,000 TIMES faster is evident, to wtch current dvd quality in real time. Easy to see where we will need even faster speeds just to have a couple of family memebers watch two different HDTV quality films in via ip in real time. same is with storage. your home video camera could have in five years ten times the current resolution of the average camera. where is that 10 to 20 gb /hour going to go when you have 50 hours of film?

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1 Yottabyte

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300 gigs. What a lord of B.S.!!!

Lets see... the first gen burner will of course be a 2.4x. 1x~1350Kbps, so @ 2.4x it would take over one day to burn a disc ;)

awer25, Thats not necessarily true. Because 1x for CD Writing is not the same as 1x for DVD Writing. For comparison the writing speed of a 1x DVD-Writer is comparable to a CD-Writer at like 9x speed because 10X CD-Writing speed is 1.5MB/sec and 1X DVD-Writing speed is 1.385MB/sec. So it all depends on how fast the drive spins and what they consider 1x speed to be. For all we know 1x speed of the holographic drive may be 10 or 20MB/sec which means it may only take 4 hours or less at 20 MB/sec to make a disc. Which I agree is still a long time, but not a whole day.

Is there any more news about Optodisc's 1 TB HVD??? It seems like they are similar technology, so is this an offspring? And as for price, it is not really that bad. If you think about it, Blue Ray was about $5,000 a couple of years ago. Also, the media is $120, I am guessing Blue Ray is not much cheaper, but holds 1/10 the data.

we should just skip hd-dvd and blu-ray. It's waste of money.

bobiroc, I agree HVD disc speeds will be different. For my analysis however I did use DVD speeds, not CD ones. I think I used 1350Kbps (I was decrypting a DVD as I wrote that and used that as a reference)

Like everthing the price comes down, look at the dual layer burners, the were $200+, now you can pick one up for $40. they will eventually come down to a decent price.

Like everthing the price comes down, look at the dual layer burners, the were $200+, now you can pick one up for $40. they will eventually come down to a decent price.

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"next, next generation DVD replacements".

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"In the future, the movies we see may be 3-d holographic requiring 50x the space... something like that perhaps" Yeah, I can totally see that happening, and not just for movies either, with the way the Video Game technology is going, this holographic disc might bring on a VR system, or a 360 degrees holographic video display. I'm sure Sony or Nintendo or Microsoft can come up with something if this thing takes off. Only, I don't know how many people would pay $150 per game, and drop a couple grand for the system.

@ S2K :

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At the time my computer had two 70k disks, and hard drives of 10 megs and and floppies of 320k were as pie in the sky as this 300gig.

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I dont understand these comments people are making... I think that home users will need this with time. People are storing more and more digital media (music, some movies) on their hard drives, therefore needing a larger hard drive. I just bought a 200GB hard drive for $40 at Fry's. I can definately see the price coming down on these dramatically, otherwise people will just stick to hard drives since they are so cheap.

As for people who dont think there is a need, there will be. Technology has gone past peoples wildest dreams in the last 50 years. The question I have is why the last 50 years, man has been around 1000's of years, so what makes the last 50 years so special. If you let your mind go and think about it, movies are people ideas, dreams and inspirations. Alot of Science Fiction shows in the past showed things that people would say would never happen and now they are fact. Were will we be in another 50 years?

hopefully not mars... it looks like theres nothing fun to do in there... unless we find another planet with coco trees and beaches, i'm stayin here!

I remember cutting notches in 5.25" floppy sleeves to try to get them to recognize both sides. I even took apart an "old" computer that had a 2'-square 16K board of core memory & a 60-pound hard disc drive with a cartridge of 6 18-inch platters. The stepper motor that spun them was strong enough to break your ankles if you stood on it & then turned it on. But this 300G crap is pie-in-the-sky, and totally pointless to even announce right now. They're just trying to create a stir.

That is what alot of people said about cars replacing their horses.

But now it cost more to ride horse then a car.

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The stepper motor that spun them was strong enough to break your ankles if you stood on it & then turned it on.

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Where will we be in another 50 years?

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Robk9, You raised a good point. Were will we be in another 50 years? Well, just like the increasing storage capacity we've seen here, we'll be increasingly asking ourselves whether our ideals rest solely in technology. It's already polarising our outlook. I think what's been so significant about the last 50 years, is the destruction of natural resource in line with such advances, and the belief that social problems will somehow sort themselves out. Feeding that change is the balkanisation of nationalities through capitalism and religious intolerance; who cares though? Who cares not if but when, the US population rockets in the next 50 years taking with it the last remaining artefacts of natural abundance, when the collective responsible is able to happily supply consumers with next-gen hardware? After all, this technology is a benchmark of evolution and sustainable resolution, right? Wrong. At this rate, people won't need to go outside - they won't want to. Their life is increasingly being dictated to by their machines and the people selling them. And in that respect yes, the world will become a worse place because people will trust their faith in technology rather than themselves as human beings - dictated to by tools rather than using them.

All I hope from humanity.... in the next 50 years... is that somewhere along.... I get to buy a mustang gt... that's all... i am not asking for ferraris, nor lamborginis... a mustang will do... please GOD... have mercy on us!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Ah hell, Wild9, that's why I always try to ask folks to think ahead a little bit, to question, to challenge, to explore, to seek answers, to use whatever sliver of common sense they can muster, to be skeptical, to NOT believe everything they are told or that they read, to NOT be a Patsy/Sucker mass-lamb technology-using consumer sucker-upper. What does it matter if there's no fresh water to drink as long as we can buy a bottle of it for just $2.99 + applicable taxes + deposit? If you simply plug that USB cable into the socket-connector -- which the good physician surgically implanted into the back of your head at birth -- to your latest root-kitted Sony 3D-Stereophonic, Stereo-Optic High-Definition Purple-Ray Cinemgraphic Playback device, then Hell! - you won't even notice that the air you are breathing contains toxic carcinogens measured in parts-per-thousand instead of parts-per-million. Oh joy! [Stimpy clasping hands together with tears in eyes]. Not to worry. As long as you maintain a healthy credit card rating, you'll be able to charge you way out of anything. I see no point in thinking for yourself these days - it's too much work, especially when others can easily do it for you, for the insanely, lo-lo price of just .... Quick! Run! Buy-buy-buy! Hurry! Hurry! Be the first on your block! Upgrade! Revise! Adapt! Convert! Install! Subscribe! I-Pod your brain! Cell-phone your mind! PSP the evil monsters! Zombies! Robots! Sheep! All of You! It's Armageddon Time! Yummy! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Strange to hear this story. There was an Autsralian company developing a multi layer cd/dvd size disk about five years ago with about the same density the one described. The media was projected to cost around A$5, making the idea very attractive. The company disappeared along with the project, it was thought.

Wild9 First of all, the last fifty years has been the only fifty years of human history with a computer. Such a magical box that can perform millions of calculations from three dimensional design to the games that most of us play to get away from the day to day bull shit we have to deal with. So out of the 1000's of years of human history we just passed the apex of an exponential growth in technology thanks to what you and I are typing on. Although im sure the strip mining clear cutting and ever constant desire for crude has helped improve your PC.... yea im sure coal wood and oil really jack up the performance. I will spell it out for you since you cant really see this is a site devoted to computer technology across the board. The last fifty years have been such a tech boom because of the computing power of the computer (hence the name you hippy ar-tard). True you do point out something grim that may prove to be an issue and currently is. the virtual hard on we have for our tech toys, they do distract us from real things both negative and positive. now leave the tech forum a tech forum not a political bs forum.

Jeeze..you do seem rather angry with yourself. Allow me go beyond reciprocated abuse and instead apply logic to your comments - sit down please away from any electronic devices (sedated if you feel it necessary), and focus long enough not to throw your philosophical rattle out the window.. You obviously have some personal issue regarding not so much the subject matter but what is rightful, democratic opinion (read the forum rules) as expressed throughout this PUBLIC medium. Unfortunately you're unwilling to respectfully disagree with other users or even communicate your ideas beyond rant - in retrospect such kindergarten communism merely makes for good headlines and without actually addressing any of the issues raised here: [Quote]First of all, the last fifty years has been the only fifty years of human history with a computer. Such a magical box that can perform millions of calculations from three dimensional design to the games that most of us play to get away from the day to day bull shit we have to deal with."[/Quote] - First of all, a very selective analysis..based almost entirely on you extolling the virtues of mechanisation tinged with a somewhat deliberate misconception: stating the bleeding obvious constitutes opinion or in your case, mere cognitive thought processes; you failed rather miserably on one count. If you actually READ my post PROPERLY you'd realise that your point about analysing the increasing use of such technology as a form of escapism, was the very issue I raised and secondly, I went on to speculate as regards the implications of where the use of such technology is heading. It's called an opinion, it's called debate, if you don't like it - then follow your own advice and find a nice little communist state in which to reside. [Quote]"I will spell it out for you since you cant really see this is a site devoted to computer technology across the board."[/Quote] - Another sweeping generalisation - what next: the colour of orange juice according to you and you only? What are you on? Fact: A recent article on here dealt with the legal and technological implications of changes to EU copyright law, and FYI that debate progressed to exchanging views on moral issues associated with global market share. Yep, this site IS devoted to computer technology across the board - now in a free world you can either report such tepid infringements of your civil liberties or DON'T READ THEM! [Quote]"The last fifty years have been such a tech boom because of the computing power of the computer (hence the name you hippy ar-tard)."[/Quote] - And you know what, human beings are driving that demand..shock! horror! Human beings using computers - whatever next: the fact that the technology MAY not be the self-certified solution certain people thought it was? have I spelt it our clearly enough for you..are we still propagating that philosophical outlook bereft of swinging rattle, rsims17? Easy, isn't it. [Quote]"True you do point out something grim that may prove to be an issue and currently is. the virtual hard on we have for our tech toys, they do distract us from real things both negative and positive. now leave the tech forum a tech forum not a political bs forum."[/Quote] Aha..the real crux of your gripe: you really don't like debate that touches on issues of politics, morals or human rights. Tell you what, go trolling around and find yourself a nice little Nazi state where you can personally vet the opinions of the entire world according to you. Fact: Back here in the real world had my views contravened the fair use policy of this site then they would have been removed a long time ago - yours on the other hand..well, time will tell :-) You also have yourself to blame when your abuse reaches a point whereas far as this forum is concerned, your ass is toast. So get used to my posts; get used to any posts you don't agree with and do what most others do here: disagree in the right and proper (legible) manner, or get kicked off for being an abusive little troll. Either way sunshine, it's your loss not mine. Cherio!!!

Oh how i love a good debate I just dont know where to start there are so many good ways to handle this. Wait my nazi state wont allow me to handle it in a way i see fit. Anyways, you raise some interesting points... no actually thats not true your points seem to be half thought out and generally your own predisposition that you are now trying to back up with some remote form of a fact. So back to the original question for a moment if you can fallow logical thought ;) a previous post asked why in the last fifty years have we seen such a tech boom. a good question with a pretty straight forward answer, the computer vacum tube then transistor then microprocessor all nice and fun, and everyone went "yay!" so that answers that, and you do raise a good point of people being ever consumed by there own electronic toys. Though its how you get there that is well out of the ream of logic. Now by all means please try to logically lay out a causual arguement to prove you are right, because im not a nazi if you can prove your point then i will agree. there is your problem though you cannot prove your statements. So anyways i post back the real answer to the question and if you would like proof simply ask, or use google and read credible sources. wow i get of topic so much, that asside i post and you replay with a few nice comments, i personally liked the nazi and communists ones. funny you use those because i of all people think the internet should be completely free for people to say whatever they want about anything... ever. that being said you could respect the mans question with the real answer and not your own claim, sorry dude but you were wrong with that one. another one i loved was that i stray from political or social debates... that made me laugh, i doubt most really care about my foundness towards a good debate/disagreement especially real issues not just white bread vs wheat. so what else is there the fair use policy... cool im all about this site the guys the run it are great i understand they need something of that nature to maintain order. that will never stop me from saying whatever i happen to think, so they will kick me off if they see fit. the legible comment was nice too by the way. its not an english paper, its a forum... you can figure the rest out for that. Oh i missed a few, technology isnt the self-certified solution? please go on about that please do i would love to hear your thoughts on that ;) Ok thats enough for today. Oh yea before i go. Troll? so like trolling the forums looking for anything that peaks my interest or an actuall troll?

I can definatly assume that it's a forum from the way that last post is placed. You do make a good point rsims17, but have you heard of capitals and spacing? See? Like this. It makes it a lot easier to read. At any rate, I can see what they meant, but to actually take them seriously would make anybody gullible in that sense. It's just that technology is becoming very close to what science-fiction dipicted it as. You can blame Star Wars for that.

Well, first off.. let me say that i found the article interesting. HOWEVER, i found the debate between W n' R to be far more interesting. I am not going to pick sides. but i will say that the environment is actually in good health, and if someone wants to say i am wrong.. fine. so be it. I'm not out to prove i'm right. Yes, technology sedates us, but there is nothing wrong with that. This is just the next step in human evolution. We are adapting to live with machines as the backbone of our existence. I can recall a time when i didn't need a computer for anything, but after so many years.. yes, i'll admit, it has become a staple of my existence. Rest assured that i do not live by the contraption day in and day out, but i do spend a good amount of time near it. In any event.. i'm just sharing my own oppinion. And it is just that. Mine. you are all right in your beleifs, because nobody can say you are wrong. But i do find it unfair for W to call R communist. That to me is an abuse of our freedom of speech. Bottom line, these forums are no longer for good communication. They have become a doorway to debate and conflict and being rude to one another. Faceless warriors taking on others for no reason other than to be right. I for one, agree with you all in one way or another. Sure i disagree with some things, but it's alright. that is what we do. It's human nature. And if the computer age can allow us to express our core human nature like this.. why can we not direct more EFFORT into communicating as intelligently as the machines we have created.. and no being verbose does not mean you are smart. it jsut means you are good with "big words". Have a good night everyone

well said, very well said indeed

Thank you RSIMS17. I somehow doubt WILD will share your politeness. But I can only hope.

Jesus. It's a freakin' data storage disk, people. Not the end of the world. Get a grip.

"Jesus. It's a freakin' data storage disk, people. Not the end of the world. Get a grip." Simplistic, but effectively true. :-D

This debate reminds of me of an episode of "Stand Alone Complex" where the Tachikoma are talking among themselves about their existence and their eventual disposal when something new arrises. It would seem that humans in the near future will be technologically advance, whether it comes in the form of robotic ligaments or cybernetic brains, or what not. All this really means is that one product will eventually take the place of another. All it really depends on is the reliability and the amount of people who use it that will allow it to progress. It all comes down to keeping control of our intelligence and recognize and maintain our humanity. Whew! I'm done.

every1 is talking bout the future and wat it holds. but the fact is ur basing r entire future on 1 article. u should take into account everything u can thing of such as nanotecnology. in the next century we might have nanobots repaired are ozone lair and the air we breath. We could be living on mars which scientists r trying to create an atmosphere for. We could be living in space on a colony with artifishile grass and plants. no one really knows what the future is going to look like but basing it on a single aspect of life seems pretty stupid to me. thats just my opinion but im sure u all know im rite even if i did spell alot of words rong.

You make a good argument there, Oldskool, but you lost it with this:

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no one really knows what the future is going to look like but basing it on a single aspect of life seems pretty stupid to me. thats just my opinion but im sure u all know im rite even if i did spell alot of words rong. I don't know if you said that to be cute, but we're just trying to poke fun at others who think this to be interesting (which I'm sure we all do:). But, you're right, we are taking the article out of context, and we should leave it open for people who want to just want to comment on it. But, where's the harm in talking amongst ourselves about trivial things? The mods (as A_Klingon has shown) don't really seem to mind. :)

This is awsome not so much the price but the technology is cool HDV I think I will wait for this instead of the HDdvd or the Blu ray just think this is the next next big thing and its already being annouced its like they know the HDDVD is a mistake or the Blu-ray is too. Think about it its Maxell thats cool too.

hmmmm, november 06 and still now holographic disc's. shame really. Hows about a follow up story aye dRD? Maybe find out what the hell is taking so long.

These discs have been out for quite a while. Maybe InPhase has not released the 300GB version for consumers. Your best bet would be to contact InPhase about it. They would be the ones to release the 300GB disc.

As of now, the write speed on the discs is not that great at about 20MB/s, but it can supposedly get upto about 120MB/s. There are also Holographic cards that can hold 30GB and those cost about $1 each and the card reader is about $2000. Those are photosensative though. I think Optware is making the cards though, but I am not sure. This tech was not marketed towards consumers so this would explain why it would be slow and why there are not many articles about it.