CDs 'could be history in five years'

Ananova ^ | November 12, 2003

[Perseverando]

CDs 'could be history in five years'

Compact discs could be history within five years, superseded by a new generation of fingertip-sized memory tabs with no moving parts.

Scientists say each paper-thin device could store more than a gigabyte of information - equivalent to 1,000 high quality images - in one cubic centimetre of space.

Experts have developed the technology by melding together organic and inorganic materials in a unique way.

They say it could be used to produce a single-use memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to operate than a CD.

It's claimed that turning the invention into a commercially viable product might take as little as five years.

The card would not involve any moving parts, such as the laser and motor drive required by compact discs. Its secret is the discovery of a previously unknown property of a commonly-used conductive plastic coating.

US scientists at Princeton University, New Jersey, and computer giants Hewlett-Packard combined the polymer with very thin-film, silicon-based electronics.

The device would be like a standard CD-R (CD-recordable) disc in that writing data onto it makes permanent changes and can only be done once. But it would also resemble a computer memory chip, because it would plug directly into an electronic circuit and have no moving parts.

A report in the journal Nature described how the researchers identified a new property of a polymer called PEDOT.

PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity, has been used for years as an anti-static coating on photographic film. Researchers looked at ways of using PEDOT to store digital information. In the new memory card, data in the form of ones and zeroes would be represented by polymer pixels.

When information is recorded, higher voltages at certain points in the circuit grid would "blow" the PEDOT fuses at those points. As a result, data is permanently etched into the device. A blown fuse would from then on be read as a zero, while an unblown one that lets current pass through is read as a one.

Story filed: 18:07 Wednesday 12th November 2003

[dfwgator]

I have a question about vinyl. I seemed to recall that a lot of vinyl albums had the annoying tendency to have the sound quality go down considerably towards the end of a side, especially when the length of a side went over 25 minutes. Is that because the width of the grooves decreased near the end so that it could fit?

[discostu]

Yeah, along with the death of cover art the art of the linernote has suffered because of CDs too.

[RiVer19]

I just bought a 5 disk Sony SACD/DVD/CD-Audio unit for $210 delivered. Sweet. Brand new model out. The SACD players were $1000 not long ago. Now you can buy one unit to play your regular CD's, DVD's, and SACD's. ...Plus, I've been into 5.1 Audio Discs for a year or so too and any old DVD player will play those. I have a bunch of DTS Audio CD's that I play in my DVD player. My stereo receiver takes the signal from the DVD player just like a movie and plays the surround 5.1 audio disks (all re-engineered sound on these). You get a totally new sound to old albums. Same music, but the instruments and voices just are moved around a bit to give real "in the middle of it" sound.

Regular DTS Audio isn't expensive to get into and more plain old DVD-Audio music is availble all the time. I bought Hotel Calafornia last week. Plays in either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS Audio 5.1 - of course DTS 5.1 is better sounding, but both are 5.1 surround.

Now, I get to buy SACD albums too. Some are only available that way in 5.1 surround. Such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

So, the cost has really come down on these.

...for what it's worth....

[BrooklynGOP]

They're being sold in Bed Bath and Beyond. I think it's home use.

Weird. I'ld imagine, an audiophile, who appreciates LP's for their superior sound quality, wouldn't be getting his equipment from Bed Bath and Beyond.

[Range Rover]

...hell, you might have to pay to listen to the radio soon!

Sooner than you think.......how about NOW? Sirius and XM Satellite Radio are $13.95 and $9.95 monthly. If the FCC successfully migrates the Radio spectrum to Digital as they are doing with Commercial Over The Air TV, subscription-based radio services could be the norm of the future.

And if you're curious, the signal quality and programming on both XM and Sirius are superior to analog AM/FM commercial radio, IMO (though Sirius signal quality is not up to the standards of XM currently - you get a lot of drop outs when driving)....but here is something you won't know unless you become a subscriber (this example being from XM):

Each reciever is coded with a unique ID and you need to initialize it to start decoding the signal. Okay, that's a pain but you only need do it once. Here is the kicker - when you stop the subscription it takes less than four minutes for them to cut off service to the particular reciever you unsubscribed. Connect a few dots and it's not hard to figure out that someone like XM knows what signal is being listened to where and by whom. In fact, user stats are collected by XM just like your ISP could keep a roster of URLs you visit.

The RIAA would love for all radio to be subscription based but "free" radio has a behemoth known as Clear Channel that isn't going to want to re-engineer each station it owns.

[RiVer19]

That was because they had to compress the dynamic sound (loudness variation) to make the audio fit on the platter. The more compressed the music the poorer it sounded. So, when they crammed a lot on one side they were compressing the sound because the grooves would be too wide otherwise and it wouldn't fit.

[discostu]

That's why I think it's more than just the audiodweebs. Plus these aren't like the super units the stereoheads got, just solid workable turntables not terribly different than the ones we used to by in Wards. It could just be a retrofad only time will tell.

[ShadowDancer]

The hell with them. I'm going back to 8-tracks.

[GSWarrior]

A recent CD I bought had the lyrics printed ON the CD. It was like 4 point type or something.

[Viva Le Dissention]

$200, huh?
Boy, that is a lot cheaper than I thought they were. I haven't looked at them in awhile, but I thought they were closer to the $1000 you mentioned.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Eagle Eye]

Ok, so where's Freddy and Phineas Freak?

[discostu]

That's obnoxious. Iggy Pop's American Ceasar had a cool note from Iggy on it. Some of the techno CDs put really cool patterns on that make you want a clear faced player to see what they do at speed. Putting the lyrics on is just dorky though, "hey what'd he say there" "I don't know I'll check when the CD finishes playing, go get my magnifying lense".

[BrooklynGOP]

My 60 gig mp3 player sounds pretty good to me. LP's are too impractical. For me, anyway.

[R. Scott]

No problem, the album cover will still be sizable to deter shop lifting.

[Bon mots]

...how would one of these interface with a car stereo that does not have a cassette player?

Good question! I don't know, but I think that maybe Apple has some kind of plug-in... if not Apple, there are likely some after-market producers of such gear.

If you find a good system, let me know. My car stereo was just stolen... again, and I would like to hook up the i-Pod to my car somehow, leaving that unsightly hole in the dashboard.

[freeforall]

Spin The Black Circle
by Pearl Jam
Album : Vitalogy
See this needle...a see my hand...
Drop, drop, dropping it down...oh, so gently...
Well here it comes...I touch the plane...
Turn me up...won't turn you away...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...spin the black, spin the black...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...whoa...
Pull it out...a paper sleeve...
Oh, my joy...only you deserve conceit...
I'm so big...a-my whole world...
I'd rather you...rather you...than her...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...spin the black, spin the black...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...whoa...oh...
You're so warm...oh, the ritual...when I lay down your crooked arm...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...spin the black, spin the black...
Spin, spin...spin the black circle
Spin, spin...
Spin the black (5x) circle
Spin the black circle... (4x)
Spin, spin... (6x)

[R. Scott]

I have two reel to reels, an Aiwa and a Panasonic. Neither work now, and no one is willing to repair them.
They set in my closet while I hope.

[AlexW]

"While every media eventually dies that tech as is won't replace the CD"

I think your quite wrong. I have been saying for last several years that memory chips will replace moving media.
It makes zero sense to have moving parts if the media can be in a chip.
The marketing has nothing to do with chip size. The chip can be on a plastic card of whatever size the market would want. My guess is credit card size will be the universal
size.

[cinFLA]

Things that small are too easy to lose and steal. Cool technology but not cool merchandise. While every media eventually dies that tech as is won't replace the CD.

You are not counting on the 'packaging'. They are free to add some plastic to make it whatever they want. They could put one on your watch and you could 'plug in' whenever you wanted. On the tips of pencils or pens - unlimited possibilities. You could even build one into your navel ring!

[InterceptPoint]

While every media eventually dies that tech as is won't replace the CD

Maybe not this one but it is guaranteed that the cost of memory will eventually get to a fraction of a buck for a gigabyte and at that point the CD is a goner. The laser based systems will hang on for awhile with the 50-100 GB DVDs that will be used for HDTV in a few years.