Ultra Density Optical Disc - UDO

 UDO has been designed specifically to provide compliant and secure archival storage for valuable business information such as high volume emails and document images, customer records, audio or video files, legal or financial information and design documentation. UDO continues to deliver all the strengths of optical storage such as data authenticity and longevity, but with much higher capacity and greatly reduced costs.

UDO is available in Rewritable and Write Once (True Write Once and Compliant Write Once) media formats. The use of Write Once media is often called for by data storage regulations because it provides an unalterable, non-erasable format that facilitates clear data audit trails and the establishment of record authenticity.

 UDO Rewritable media is typically used in archive environments where data needs to be deleted or media capacity re-used.

              

  UDO customers include investment banks, on-line trading companies, multinational insurance companies, government institutions, healthcare delivery organizations, television and radio broadcasters, retail companies and engineering firms.

2.What is an Ultra density optical disc?

Ultra Density Optical technology, commonly referred to as UDO, is the ideal successor to Magneto Optical (MO) archival storage because it adheres to the 5.25" ISO standard form factor. UDO offers customers more than three times the capacity of MO, with 33% faster file access, 8 MB/sec read transfer rates and a lower longer term cost of ownership; roughly 84% per GB less than MO. UDO will deliver the highest level of data integrity and trustworthiness with phase change write once recording and is considered the new 30 GB standard for professional optical storage; ideal for customers who must meet international, commercial and governmental archival regulations.

Phase Change Technology utilizes the heat from a blue laser to write data on the recording surface of optical media. The laser records data marks by altering the reflective quality of the recording surface. This is done by changing the physical state of the media's recording layer from a crystalline to an amorphous state, which produces bright to dark marks on the media.

 The laser, set at a lower intensity, is then used to read the media. UDO Write Once optical technology prevents data from being overwritten or altered. UDO uses a non-contact recording to provide robust and reliable performance and is insensitive to exposure to magnetic fields.

3.DIFFERENT FORMATS

UDO is available in Rewritable and Write Once (True Write Once and Compliant Write Once) media formats. The use of Write Once media is often called for by data storage regulations because it provides an unalterable, non-erasable format that facilitates clear data audit trails and the establishment of record authenticity. UDO Rewritable media is typically used in archive environments where data needs to be   deleted   or media capacity re-used.

3.1 Rewritable Media

UDO Rewritable media uses a specially formulated Phase Change recording surface that allows recorded data to be deleted and modified. In practice, UDO Rewritable media operates like a standard magnetic disk. Files can be written, erased and rewritten, dynamically reallocating media capacity. Rewritable UDO media is typically used in archive applications where the stability and longevity of optical media is important, but the archive records change on a relatively

frequent or discretionary basis.

 In these environments the archive may be more transient and used to off-load static data from the primary disk storage with the added benefit of being able to reuse the media capacity in the future. UDO Rewritable media is ideal for small office and departmental applications or in larger unstructured archives that are not subject to specific regulatory or corporate standards.

3.2 True Write Once Media

UDO True Write once media uses a totally different Phase Change recording surface than the Rewritable media. Unlike Rewritable media, the Write Once recording surface cannot be erased or altered, giving True Write Once media the highest possible level of physical record authenticity. This level of data integrity cannot be matched by magnetic disk or tape technologies using Write Once emulation. True Write Once optical media has a very long and successful history with a wide range of applications across many industries.

                    Its greatest strengths are media longevity to reduce the cost and frequency of migration, and data authenticity that meets strict legal standards. Common uses of True Write Once media include medical, financial, industrial and cultural applications that have long or indefinite record retention periods with a need for unquestioned record authenticity.

3.3 Compliant Write Once Media

UDO Compliant Write once media has the same operational properties as True Write Once media with one important difference. Through the use of a specially designed “shred” operation, individual records written to Compliant Write Once media can be destroyed once their retention period expires.

The shred function is controlled at an application level and operates only on Compliant Write Once media. It is a fully verified process and unlike the erase pass on magnetic disks, the shred operation on Phase Change media leaves no residual traces of previously written data. While it is possible to shred data on magnetic disks through the use of specialized tools that repeatedly overwrite a patterned sequence, destroying individual records on magnetic tape is not possible without totally rewriting the media. Shredding data on Compliant Write Once media is highly efficient and provides the highest possible standard for absolute data destruction.

The driving requirement behind the use of Compliant Write Once is risk management and compliance. Industry regulations and corporate policies often mandate specific record retention periods for archive data. Some regulations require that records be physically destroyed when the retention period expires and in other instances the destruction of the data is at the discretion of the organization or by customer request. In all cases, the use of UDO Compliant media provides Write Once data authenticity while ensuring total data destruction.

 The proper disposition of records can dramatically reduce political and financial liability as organizations seek to avoid situations where legal discovery proceedings uncover record should have been destroyed.

The attributes of Write Once authenticity and absolute data destruction make UDO Compliant Write Once media ideal for ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) environments, email archiving applications and the controlled storage of regulated records.

3.3(a).Compliant Write Once Media Operational Overview

Physical Media Identification

UDO Write Once Media is available in two different formats: True Write Once and Compliant Write Once. Since both of these media formats offer similar Write Once media attributes, they are housed in the same blue Write Once antistatic media cartridge. While the cartridge color is the same, the Compliant Write Once media has a distinctive red text field printed on the shutter

At an operational level, the UDO drive identifies the three UDO media types through the use of a SDI (Specific Disk Information) field registered on the media header during the manufacturing process. The SDI is present in a specific location on the media and cannot be altered or modified. In addition to containing a unique disk serial number, the name of the manufacturer and additional drive and media information, it also includes a code that identifies the media as Rewritable, True Write Once or Compliant Write Once. A UDO drive can read and write data on all three media types, but since the physical recording surfaces differ, the drive needs to know which media is loaded so a drive calibration can be performed for the appropriate media characteristics.

The SDI number is automatically read by the UDO drive when a piece of media is loaded, and if identified as Compliant Write Once media, the SDI authorizes the drive firmware to perform the shred operation used to destroy data sectors

Media Sector Format Compliant

Write Once media uses the same 8KB sector size as the other two UDO media types. Each 8KB sector is divided into three primary fields: a VAP (Verify and Protect) field, the actual data field and a field containing ECC (Error Correction Code) information. Figure 2provides a schematic diagram detailing the full structure of the 8KB sector. Structure of 8KB Media Sector The VAP field is created when data is written to media sectors on True Write Once and Compliant Write Once media. It is a standard identifier to verify that the sector in question is a Write Once sector.

 This field is present primarily for efficiency. The presence of the VAP field tells the application that there is no need to perform a “Blank Check” pass on the sector in question. The VAP field is very small, using less than one tenth of one percent of the 8KB sector. The data field contains the actual file data written by the application or user and occupies about 90% of the total sector size. This is followed by the ECC field, which makes up the remaining 10% (approximately) of the sector. The ECC file contains coded parity information about the data in the sector that allows the drive to read the data field even if the media surface is dirty or has been damaged.

Data Shred Command Operation and Application Control On Compliant Write Once media, the data field within a media sector can be destroyed by means of a unique data shred command executed through the SCSI interface. the drive to quickly recognize the sector as shredded. If all fields within the sector were destroyed, the drive could confuse the sector(s) as unwritten or damaged causing unnecessary reallocation operations that would degrade performance.

Data Shred Command Operation and Application Control

On Compliant Write Once media, the data field within a media sector can be destroyed by means of a unique data shred command executed through the SCSI interface. However, given the sensitive nature of data destruction, shred operations are normally only initiated at an application level where access and security can be closely managed. When the shred command is executed against a specific sector or range of sectors, only the data field within each 8KB sector is destroyed. The VAP and ECC fields remain intact. These fields are left in place to allow the drive to quickly recognize the sector as shredded. If all fields within the sector were destroyed, the drive could confuse the sector(s) as unwritten or damaged causing unnecessary reallocation operations that would degrade performance.

Data Destruction on 8KB Media Sector It is important to note that while the associated ECC information for a destroyed data field is left behind, it would be mathematically impossible to reconstruct the entire data field from the remaining coded information.

Physical Destruction and Verification Process

UDO media employs a Phase Change recording process to read and write data on the three different media types. A high-density blue laser heats the recording surface changing the molecular structure between crystalline and amorphous states depending on the function being performed and the media type in question. With Rewritable media data, sectors can be raised and rewritten. True Write Once media only permits write and read operations since it s not possible for the laser, regardless of the temperature, to alter the data once it has been written.

Like True Write Once media, Compliant Write Once media does not allow the deletion & rewriting of data, but has a special shred command to destroy data fields. The shred command that operates on Compliant Write Once media uses a specific laser intensity that totally destroys the data files on targeted sectors. Data points written using phase Change technology can exist in only one state at a time (amorphous or crystalline) once destroyed the data cannot be retrieved. When shredded, the physical and chemical ace Change process begins at the perimeter of the data points and re-crystallizes from the outside in. As a result, no residual traces of data are left behind even when factoring in track deviation and variance in laser intensity tolerances from one drive to another.

Destruction process on Compliant Write Once media is very different than the erase pass n a magnetic disk. Magnetic disk erase operations leave physical traces of recorded data hat can be recovered using special procedures. To avoid data recovery on magnetic disks, multi-pass erase and overwrite operation can be employed, rewriting a specific pattern as any as ten times over the same sector to ensure that data cannot be recovered. This operation can be very time consuming if there are large numbers of documents to be destroyed and if this technique is not used, the documents may still be resent on the disk creating a potential liability risk for business or other organizational processes.

 UDO Compliant Write once media uses a secure two-pass shred operation. The first pass is for the destruction of the data and the second pass is to verify that the operation as successfully completed.

 Shredding of Reallocated Sectors

Sector reallocation on UDO media uses a very similar technique as is employed with risks. If a defective media sector was identified during a write operation it would be automatically reallocated from the original sector to a secondary defect list. When a shred operation is executed against a sector with reallocation, both the original and reallocated sectors are shredded in order to ensure that all data related to the targeted sector is physically destroyed.

Verify and Scan Operations

Since Compliant Write Once media only allows data to be written once to any given sector, the media capacity from shredded sectors cannot be recaptured. Consequently, it is necessary for both the drive and higher level applications to easily distinguish shredded sectors from blank sectors when assessing sector availability and overall media capacity.

When a sector is shredded it retains a status that is clearly identifiable at an application level. If the application issues a standard “Verify for Written” SCSI operation against a shredded sector, the drive returns a “shredded” status to inform the host that the sector is not blank. If the application issues a “Verify for Blank” operation against a shredded sector, the drive returns a “Not Blank” status so that inappropriate write operations cannot be performed. Then trying to assess the available media capacity, a “Medium Scan” operation can be executed. This command identifies shredded sectors as “written”, allowing the proper available media capacity to be determined.

3.3(b) Compliant Write Once Media Summery

In the past, organizations focused very little on the disposition of aging data, but changes in technology, regulations and corporate risk management have dramatically altered the archive landscape. There is a growing imperative to better manage information assets in line with business priorities. Sometimes referred to as ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) /DLM (Data Lifecycle Management), the intelligent and articulate control of data is becoming essential to achieving fundamental business objectives. The envelopment of Compliant Write Once media was a very direct response to these evolving organizational and technical requirements.

The functionality and physical attributes of the Compliant Write Once technology provides a unique combination of media longevity, record authenticity and assured data destruction that cannot be matched by magnetic disks or taps. These technical capabilities make compliant write once valuable tool in addressing industry regulations and corporate policies. As part of a trio of UDO media formats that also includes Rewritable and True Write Once, Compliant Write Once media provides organizations with the flexibility to match their business needs with the most appropriate archival storage technology.

4. UDO Media Technical Overview

Write Once Media is available in two different formats: True Write Once and Compliant Write Once. Since both of these media formats offer similar Write Once media attributes, they are housed in the same blue Write Once antistatic media cartridge. While the cartridge color is the same, the Compliant Write Once media has a distinctive red text field printed on the shutter. At an operational level, the UDO drive identifies the three UDO media types through the use of a SDI (Specific Disk Information) field registered on the media header during the manufacturing process. The SDI is present in a specific location on the media and cannot be altered or modified.

In addition to containing a unique disk serial number, the name of the manufacturer and additional drive and media information, it also includes a code that identifies the media as Rewritable, True Write Once or Compliant Write Once. A UDO drive can read and write data on all three media types, but since the physical recording surfaces differ, the drive needs to know which media is loaded so a drive calibration can be performed for the appropriate media characteristics.

The SDI number is automatically read by the UDO drive when a piece of media is loaded, and if identified as Compliant Write Once media, the SDI authorizes the drive firmware to perform the shred operation used to destroy data sectors. The combination of a media based SDI and drive based firmware controls provides a highly secure architecture that ensures the proper and efficient operation of all three media types.

Specifications of the "5.25 inch UDO Format"

	5.25-inch UDO Format		5.25-inch MO system (9.1GB)*under development
	Rewritable	Write-Once
Disk Diameter	130mm	130mm	130mm
DiskThickness	2.4mm	2.4mm	2.4mm
Cartridge Size	Same as ISO 130mm (135 x 153 x 11 mm)	Same as ISO 130mm (135 x 153 x 11 mm)	ISO 130mm (135 x 153 x 11 mm)
Number of physical tracks	96,964	96,964	49,728
Sector size	8KB	8KB	4KB
Number of sectors	2,504,407	2,504,407	1,118,880
Data area	29.0-61.0mm	29.0-61.0mm	29.7-62.5mm
Objective lens (NA)	0.85	0.85	0.575
Recording layer	Phase change	Phase change	Magneto Optical
Recording format	Land & Groove	Land & Groove	Land & Groove
Recording side	both sides	both sides	both sides
Track Pitch	0.33um	0.33um	0.65um
Minimum bit length	0.13um	0.13um	0.3um
Recording	15.0 Gb/inch2	15.0 Gb/inch2	3.3 Gb/inch2
Transfer rate	4-8MB/sec	4-8MB/sec	3-6MB/sec

Media Capacity	30GB (Double Sided)
Sector Size	8KB
Cartridge Size	5.25 inch
Recording Layer	Phase Change
Media Life	50+ years
Rewrite Cycles	10,000 (Rewritable media)
Certification	ISO/IEC 17345, ECMA-350

UDO Media Specifications Summary

5. How does UDO works ?

                                     

5.1 UDO Recording Technology

5.1(a). UDO PHASE CHANGE MEDIA DESIGN CRITERIA

toDisc stores digitally encoded video, audio and other data information in pits-spiral grooves that run from the centre of the disc to the end of the disc. A laser reads the other side of these pits-the bumps-to play the movie or program that stored in DVD. The more data that is containing on a disc, the smaller are more closely packed the pits must be. The smaller pits the more precise the reading laser must be unlike current DVDs, which use a red laser to read and write data. UDO uses a blue laser which has shorter wave length (405nm) than a red laser (650nm)

The primary market for UDO will be writing once applications. In order to fulfill the increasing number of legislative requirements to provide an unalterable audit trail, the need for true write once media is becoming more and more important. Unlike MO media which is inherently rewritable (with write once functionality being achieved through software), phase change coatings can be designed to be truly write once. However, because some applications require rewritability, the UDO drives are multifunctional, and both UDO write once and UDO rewritable media have been developed. The two types of media have slightly different formats (minor differences in the formatted information and groove geometry) but very different phase change alloy coatings, each optimized according their application: archival true write once or high scalability rewritable. In the following sections, we shall discuss some of the design considerations leading to the selection of the phase change materials and stack development for each type of UDO media and illustrate the resulting performance.

5.1(b). UDO REWRITABLE MEDIA

UDO rewritable is based on fast growth phase change, the active layer being a Sb-Te-Ge alloy close to the Sb69Te31 eutectic composition. UDO rewritable is a high density, fast recording media combined with high scalability, and high resistance to cross erase. Figures show typical results for the UDO power margin, overwrite performance and cross erase, with in excess of 20,000 direct overwrite cycles being achieved. Note that BERC is a measure of byte error rate, with results less than 30 being acceptable to the drive.

6. UDO ADVANTAGES

·         Record high definition television (HDTV) without any quality loss.

·         Instantly skip to any spot on the disc.

·         Record one program while watching another on the disc with out any disturbance.

·         Automatically searches for an empty space on the disc to avoid recording over a program.

·         Complies with industry regulations for record authenticity

·         Provides unmatched media longevity

·         Supports scalable, high capacity configurations

·         Delivers rapid access to archived data

·         Especially in Compliant Write Once media , there is a specially designed shred operation individual records written to Compliant Write Once media can be destroyed on

7. UDO Development

The UDO disc founder, as the consortium is called, includes some of the biggest names in consumer electronics media. The UDO technology roadmap calls for future generations of 60GB and 120GB media capacities with drive backward read compatibility to maximize investment protection and ensure long-term data access. UDO technology is available in a UDO Desktop Drive configuration for small office and departmental applications and in G-Series automated libraries for high capacity environments that require fast access to archived data.

12.1 THE UDO MEDIA FOUNDERS

1.      Sony Corporation

2.      Plasmon (Mitsubishi Chemical)

Is it possible to have 500GB?

Now in market it is available 30GB capacity UDO disc. But it is now developing up to 120GB. It will be soon available in the market. It is possible to have 500GB UDO disc by using smaller wave length lights (like UV rays) we can increase the capacity

8. UDO features

The core technology for UDO is essentially similar to Blue-ray although there are a number of key differences. The main features of UDO are:

(a) Authenticity and Trustworthiness

UDO provides absolute data authenticity for regulatory compliance or for any application where archived information must remain 100%   unchanged. DO uses a patented Phase Change recording process that permanently alters the molecular structure of true Write Once media, ensuring data integrity at the most fundamental level. UDO is also available with Rewritable media for archive environments where data needs to be deleted or media capacity reused. Unlike true Write Once media, Rewritable media allows the Phase Change recording process to be reversed. Enhanced error correction algorithms and read ahead defect management complement UDOs Phase Change recording process to guarantee unparalleled data integrity.

b) Long-term Data Retention

UDO has been designed to provide decades of dependable data retention. A highly stable recording surface, precision engineered protective coating and durable cartridge delivers media life in excess of 50years, minimizing the frequency of data migration and virtually eliminating media maintenance. The UDO drive design is robust and reduces the potential for contamination, enabling them to withstand the rigors of continuous, long-term use.

(c) High Capacity and Scalability

Rapidly growing archive data volumes demand solutions with high initial capacity and flexibility to scale over time. Blue laser technology gives 30GBUDO more than three times the capacity of previous generation MO (Magneto Optical) and DVD technologies. The removability of UDO cartridges, combined with the off-line media management capabilities of optical storage libraries, means scalability is essentially unlimited. Rarely used data can be removed from a library, freeing up capacity yet remaining managed and accessible.

     (d) Rapid Information Access

Knowledge assets are useless if they cannot be accessed when needed. UDO has fast 35-milli second random access capability, facilitating timely retrieval of relevant data. An 8K sector size optimizes read/write performance across a wide range of file sizes. UDO realizes additional performance by operating at Constant Angular Velocity (CAV). During reads and writes the medias pins continuously at the highest possible rate. In rewritable applications, UDO features a unique direct over write capability, doubling rewrite speeds by eliminating the need for a dedicated erase pass.

  (e) Low Total Cost of Ownership

UDO has a highly competitive archival storage TCO.With attractively priced 30GB media, the acquisition cost of a UDO library compares favorably with much less reliable tape or DVD solutions and costs a fraction of hard disk-based systems. UDO's ISO standard 5.25 inch media cartridge permits the use of MO and UDO media in the same library, eliminating the necessity for migration from 9.1 MO media. Planned introductions of backward-compatible 60GBand 120GB UDO drives guarantee investment protection and minimize future migration expense.

UDO drives and media are designed for longevity and drives operate only when a cartridge is inserted -keeping overall maintenance and operating costs extremely low. Combined with its inherent authenticity and trustworthiness over time, outstanding capacity and scalability and excellent random access attributes, UDO's low TCO makes it the ideal solution for professional archive applications and a key element of a comprehensive information life cycle strategy.

9. Application & Markets

              UDO is the only storage technology that delivers the secure authentication of true Write Once storage with the permanence that ensures the lowest possible Total Cost of Ownership. These attributes are fundamental to many industries for the archival storage of corporate documents, emails, customer records and transaction data. Industries that benefit from UDO technology include:

UDO for the Financial market

                      The properties of UDO make it extremely well suited to meet the archival storage demands of financial institutions. UDO provides the authenticity of true Write Once technology, rapid access to decades of records and the media longevity required for the long-term retention of important customer and transaction records. Ensuring data authenticity is critical to regulation compliance and to avoid costly litigation. As a result, many financial regulations that define media types typically call for the use of unalterable or Write Once media; making UDO the clear choice for financial record archives.

UDO for the Insurance Market

                      UDO provides very fast access to random files. Load time for UDO media is a few seconds and seek times are a fraction of a second so any file in a multiple terabytes optical library can be accessed in less than 10 seconds. Because the access cycle for data stored in automated libraries with UDO media takes only a few seconds, UDO library configurations operate extremely well in multi user, high demand environments such as the insurance industry where there can be hundreds of requests for archive data                    

                      UDO makes it possible for insurance companies to archive and quickly access information that they may not have been able to in the past. In this very competitive industry, the rapid data availability provided by UDO can allow organizations to offer new products and services and gain a competitive advantage.

UDO for the Healthcare market

                      Healthcare organizations demand high system capacities to meet the enormous volume of medical images and records, while making sure it's secure and cost effective. UDO meets these demands with high media / system capacity and a low Total Cost of Ownership that is unmatched by other storage media. The true Write Once nature of UDO is ideally suited for medical applications since patient records and medical images cannot be altered or lost. Since UDO uses non-magnetic recording, data written to the media is not damaged by exposure to magnetic fields, which can be a considerable risk where powerful medical imaging equipment is in use. The convenience of UDO's rugged, removable cartridge also gives hospitals the flexibility to store large volumes of data within a library or to easily remove older data to a vault for longer-term off-line storage.

UDO for the Healthcare market

                      Healthcare organizations demand high system capacities to meet the enormous volume of medical images and records, while making sure it's secure and cost effective. UDO meets these demands with high media / system capacity and a low Total Cost of Ownership that is unmatched by other storage media. The true Write Once nature of UDO is ideally suited for medical applications since patient records and medical images cannot be altered or lost. Since UDO uses non-magnetic recording, data written to the media is not damaged by exposure to magnetic fields, which can be a considerable risk where powerful medical imaging equipment is in use.

UDO for the Pharmaceutical market

                    While pharmaceutical research, development and filing application records must be kept for decades, they are often infrequently accessed. As a result, the archive media for these records must be very cost effective, facilitate record authentication and provide excellent longevity. The attributes of UDO match these requirements extremely well. True Write Once technology affords the best possible audit trail management to ensure data authenticity. Media life in excess of 50 years acts to minimize data migration frequency, it requires virtually zero media maintenance and minimal operating costs. Pharmaceutical companies can write their records onto stable UDO media and be certain the data is available years later without the additional expense .

UDO for Legal environments

                    Data integrity and authenticity, a main concern for record admissibility, is best achieved by Write Once technology, because it provides a secure, unalterable format that facilitates clear audit trails that enhance overall data trustworthiness. UDO's true Write Once recording offers an unrivalled level of data integrity, since the recording surface only permits data to be written a single time and unique serial numbers on each piece of media further add.

UDO for the Broadcasting Industry

                   Digital audio and video files require large amounts of storage space and 30GB UDO media in combination with automated libraries provides the capacity needed to meet the demand. Since many of these files are a matter of public record, some will have indefinite retention periods requiring stable media with a very long life. UDO has a scientifically verified media life of over 50 years that gives the broadcast industry the opportunity to store large volumes of data with virtually zero on-going maintenance. The longevity of the media also means that data migration cycles can be greatly extended, dramatically reducing the long-term cost of the overall archive. The removability of UDO media also supports off-line media vaulting, reducing archive storage costs and increasing security over decades of archive life.

UDO for Governmental Organizations

                The huge volume of records maintained and preserved by governmental organizations worldwide calls for the most reliable archival solution at the lowest possible cost and with quick access characteristics. UDO meets all these requirements, offering permanent media with professional quality hardware, cost effective storage for years of operation and very fast access to huge data archives. As a result of "freedom of information" laws, many national, state and local governments must now respond rapidly to citizen requests against a huge range of information.

10.UDO DRIVE

(DESK TOP DRIVE & INTERNAL DRIVE)

10.1DESK TOP DRIVE

UDO Desktop Drives bring professional archival storage to small office and departmental environments at an affordable price. Healthcare facilities, accounting and legal departments, engineering and design offices, publishing houses and many other businesses benefit from the high capacity, performance and reliability of UDO Desktop Drives for the long-term storage of their valuable information.

Engineered for demanding archive environments, UDO Drives are certified with very high duty cycles that ensure reliable operation in combination with fast seek times and high read/write speeds optimized for the unique performance requirements of a data archive.

The UDO Desktop drive supports Write Once UDO media for unmatched data authenticity and compliance with industry regulations and UDO Rewritable media for more general archive requirements that demand data longevity while allowing older records to be erased and media space reused.

The UDO Desktop Drive package includes a UDO drive in a compact, attractive enclosure, external power supply, interface / power cables, one piece of 30GB UDO Rewritable media and software drivers for Windows and Linux operating systems.

10.2 INTERNAL DRIVE

UDO Internal Drives consist of a conventional UDO drive, but without an external enclosure or power supply. Using an industry standard half-height form factor, the UDO Internal Drive is designed for easy installation into computer servers and specialized peripheral devices such as medical imaging equipment, digital recording devices, and document scanners.

UDO Drives Specifications Summary

Media Load Time	5 sec
Media Unload Time	3 sec
Average Seek Time	35 msec
Buffer Memory	32MB
Max Sustained Transfer Rate - Read	8 MB/s
Max Sustained Transfer Rate - Write	4 MB/s (with verification)
MSBF - Mean Swap Between Failure	750,000 load/unload cycles
MTBF - Mean Time Between Failure	100,000 hours
Interface	Wide Ultra 2 LVD SCSI

11. UDO VS OTHER DISC FORMATS   CD

CDs- compact disks - hold either 680 or 700MB of data. That's sufficient for 80 minutes of music. They are used for music and also for distributing software or storing digital data such as images

CD: Compact Disc or CD-Audio, a digital storage medium formed of a 12cm diameter polycarbonate foundation layer coated with a reflective metalized layer, and a protective lacquer coating. The physical format of CDs is described by the ISO9660 .It rapidly became apparent in the late 90s that the CD with its 680M or slightly more capacity was insufficient. The consumer drive was for a format that could hold more digital photos with the Holy Grail being the storage of a whole movie.

DVD
             DVDs are big advance incapacity over CDs, offering 4.7GB. Like CDs, DVDs store data in microscopic grooves running in a spiral around the disc.
                

                     DVD technology writes in smaller 'pits' to the recordable media than CD technology. Smaller pits mean that the drive's laser must produce a smaller spot. DVD technology achieves this by reducing the laser's wavelength from the 780nm infrared light used in standard CD.

Smaller data pits allow more pits per data track. The minimum pit length of a single layer DVD-RAM is 0.4 micron as compared to 0.834 micron for a CD. Additionally, DVD tracks are closer together, allowing more tracks per disc. Track pitch-the distance from the center of one part of the spiral information or 'track' to the adjacent part of the track-is smaller. On a 3.95GB DVD-R, track pitch is 0.8 microns;CD track pitch is 1.6 micron,   These narrow tracks require special lasers for reading and writing — which can't read CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, or audio CDs. Most drive makers have solved this problem by putting two lasers in their design.

Data access speeds
             DVD accesses data faster than CD and uses more robust error correction. In fact, the speed of DVD demands a new unit of measure. CD drive speeds are expressed as multiples of that format's original data transfer rate 'X,' or 150KB per second. A 32X CD-ROM drive reads data at 32 times 150KBps or 4MBps. DVD's 1X is 1.38MBps. That's faster than an 8x CD drive.

And after DVDs
                

There are three optical formats that offer more than 8.5GB. These are Plasmon's UDO, HD-DVD and Blue-ray. All three used blue laser light. This has a narrower beam than red laser light.         

UDO is positioned as a business data storage format. The others are primarily consumer-focused with a secondary business storage use, just like CDs and DVDs.UDO is developed from the earlier MO - magneto-optical - disks.

Blue-ray: Blue-ray is a Sony-supported format and holds 25GB in single layer form, but with two layers and double-sided recording, could hold 100GB. Such capacities mean high-definition movies could be stored. It needs a cartridge to hold it and the disk can't be played in DVD-players.
            

 HD-DVD: High-definition DVD. HD DVD is a 20GB capacity format which could, via multiple layers hold more than 50GB. Disks don't need cartridges.
           

  MO: An older format with disks providing 9.1GB and were used for business data archiving purposes.
          

  UDO: A Plasmon-only format offering 30GB capacity for business data storage purposes

12. CONCLUSION

Ultra Density Optical, the next generation 5¼” professional optical data storage technology, has been developed based on phase change technology. The first generation UDO drive incorporates a 405nm blue laser diode with high numerical aperture, NA=0.7 objective lens to realize a capacity of 30GB on a double-sided 5¼”, cartridged disc. Both true write once and high cyclability rewritable UDO media have been developed for the multi-function drive. Robust performance with excellent margins has been demonstrated. The roadmap for UDO extends for at least three generations, leading to media capacity of at least 120GB capacity.

The UDO roadmap was designed to use proven technologies at all stages in order to ensure that products could be delivered on time and to budget. Too often, companies try to push a new technology to its limits too early and suffer the inevitable delays to program schedules, cost overruns and failures to deliver to specifications.

In contrast, UDO takes the existing proven elements of Blue-ray technology to deliver a family of professional data storage products with the initial generation. Later generations push the technology further as the industry develops the techniques required to manufacture components required to an acceptable level.