New Disc Will Hold 100X More Data than Blu-ray

Just when you thought there was a limit to data storage, say hello to Mempile's five-terabyte disc. Compared to the 50GB capacity of Blu-ray, it'll potentially hold 100X more bits and bytes. Compared with CDs, the ratio grows -- One Mempile disc for every 7,700 CDs.

You may wonder why anyone would need such massive amounts of storage space, but the more the better when it comes to mid-sized companies. More stringent record-keeping requirements have cropped up in recent years -- everything from the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountibility Act. In fact, every four years, a company's data needs will grow an average of 8-10 times. Despite the exponential growth in storage demand, prices per gigabyte of storage have dropped dramatically -- primarily due to new technologies.

Mempile's disc should be on the market in a few years. Until then, let's see how high you can stack your CD collection. I'm at 28 -- think you can top that?

Stacked CDs image by Ctd_2005