Timely analyst thought pieces on issues pertaining to digital media, home networks, and consumer electronics.

I had the opportunity to meet with Beth Erez, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Mempile, today.  Mempile is developing a new storage technology that works by focusing a laser at multiple depths from the disc surface.  Working with partners, they have developed a disc that can be written and read throughout its complete depth and recently demonstrated the capability to address 100 unique layers.  Coined as the “TeraDisc”, they expect to be able to support 200 5GB layers.

The new disc is essentially clear plastic substrate filled with a specially developed material that reacts to the red laser.  The R/W mechanism involves changing the state of chromophores and detecting their relative florescence using something called 2-photon technology.   They expect the technology to be supported by standard red laser drives, however they will need a new OPU/servo to support the very fine motor control necessary to focus at these virtual data layers and new algorithms to read and write data.   

While they are still 12-18 months away from demonstrating a real application, they are starting to get a handle on where the real opportunities are.   Competing against HD-DVD and Blu-Ray they understand, is not one of them.  In fact, they look to those folks as potential partners.  They see this as primarily an archival technology for things like video surveillance footage, enterprise and records storage - especially where things like medical image files, for example, that must be maintained for long periods of time.  They need support in consumer markets too and they are trying to figure out where the best fit there is.  

Mempile has been working on the technology since 2000 and is backed by a variety of investors, including Kodiak Ventures.  Ms. Erez joined Mempile from NDS where she was VP of Strategic Alliances and Chairman of the SVP Alliance.  They understand that if their technology is going to make it, they need to create industry wide support.  Ms. Erez hopes to leverage her experience with the SVP Alliance and make 3D storage a reality.

Not with a bang, but a whimper. Helio, Virgin Mobile and the quiet death of the ‘Youth’ MVNO (Alternative title: Death by iPhone)
Author: Nick Holland
Principal Analyst, Mobile Content
Posted: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:38:18 EDT

iPhone 2.0. So Very Close, but No Cigar.
Author: Nick Holland
Principal Analyst, Mobile Content
Posted: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:07:57 EDT

TakeTV - The Check is in the Mail.
Author: Steve Wilson
Principal Analyst, Consumer Video Technologies
Posted: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 10:32:01 EDT

tru2way - A Specification with no Reference
Author: Steve Wilson
Principal Analyst, Consumer Video Technologies
Posted: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 11:43:03 EDT

Goodbye Akimbo
Author: Michael Wolf
Research Director, Digital Home
Posted: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:01:51 EDT