Pioneer's New Blu

Japanese manufacturer Pioneer developed a new BD-R discs that is guaranteed to store data for at least 100 years.

As PC Watch reports (via Tom's Hardware), a revision to the Electronic Book Preservation Act in Japan means there's currently a big shift among Japanese businesses and government agencies to store records digitally rather than on paper. In order to do that, a large-scale data storage medium is required that can be relied upon for decades to come.

Pioneer's solution to this problem is a new external USB 3.0 Blu-ray optical drive called the BDR-WX01DM and 25GB BD-R discs called IPS-BD11J03P. When used together, they produce discs that conform to the JIS X6257 standard for guaranteed long-term storage of data, which Pioneer claims is a world's first.

Pioneer is using the label "DM for Archive" on the discs and player. What you're getting is an optical drive capable of writing discs at 12x that will then retain their data for a 100 years or more. The drive is made to a higher standard than typical Blu-ray burners, but I'd be surprised if they will still be working 100 years from now, especially if they are being used to burn discs on a daily basis.

As you'd expect, both the optical drive and the discs carry a premium price. The BDR-WX01DM costs around $400 and the 25GB discs are $16 each. Additional costs will be incurred for ensuring the discs are stored in a suitable environment (within specific temperature and humidity ranges) and precautions need to be taken to protect them from disasters such as floods and earthquakes.

Relying on optical discs to backup data 25GB at a time may seem acceptable now, but the world produces zettabyes of data every year. New methods of long-term storage are required, which is why Microsoft is looking at using DNA to solve the problem and has already stored the 1978 movie Superman on a quartz glass drive that will last thousands of years.

Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!