Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:30 am
In the mid-2000s, storage devices that could hold a large amount of data were much in demand.
One of the storage devices that attempted to fulfill the need was the Holographic Versatile Card or HVC.
It was developed by Optware Corporation, Japan, which specialized in holographic storage technology.
Optware had earlier announced in 2002 that it would release a 1TB optical Holographic Versatile Disc and a player to support the optical disc format.
While the industry was waiting for the emergence of the disc, Optware announced the HVC.
The company admittedly leveraged the collinear holography research they had undertaken for the development of the Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD).
HVC Announcement
Optware announced the Holographic Versatile Card in 2005.
The card was supposed to have been released in 2007 after the finalization of the HVC standard.
The standardization of the Holographic Versatile Card technology was undertaken by Ecma International.
It was a body responsible for the standardization of information and communication technologies.
Ecma International was expected to wrap up the standardization by December 2006.
Holographic Versatile Card Features
The card could store 30GB of data.
Along with it, a reader-cum-writer would also be launched.
The card would be around the size of a credit card. The reader-writer device would be the size of a desktop external computer hard drive.
Holographic Versatile Disc’s Main Selling Point
The main selling point of the HVC was that it could write data 3 times the speed of Blu-ray.
However, no promise was offered as to the reliability of the card.
Would it be resistant to data errors as a result of dust accumulation or scratching?
The product developer could not say for sure.
Estimated Cost
Still, eyebrows were raised when Optware predicted that a 30GB HVC would sell for around $1.
HVC drives were estimated to cost around $2000 a pop.
That was not surprising as the first DVD writers were sold for around $1000 and later prices started falling rapidly.
To date, there has been no news of the Holographic Versatile Card. That’s understandable as Blu-ray is popular and thumb dives are supporting the storage of large amounts of data.
