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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jason Rooks who wrote (1446)	11/11/1997 11:27:00 AM
From: Gary Spiers	Respond to of 60323

Jason, Holographic optical memory is a way of storing information in materials (crystals) by creating holograms within the material. The technique has the potential for very high density data storage and has been under investigation since the mid-late 80s originally as one of the potential components of an optical computer (first demonstrated about 1990). Most of the research is still at the University level (AFAIK) and was originally funded by SDI and by DARPA. The immediate potential for some of this is in image recognition (hence SDI and DARPA interest) which is conceptually very easy in an optical computer but very complex in an electronic one. I would suspect that companies involved in the development of fibre communications technology would have r&d investments in this technology. I personally do not see this as a threat to Sandisk - maybe in 10 - 20 years:-) After much activity in the field in the early 90s, development seems to have slowed due to some complex architectural problems. The technology is (currently) not very rugged and is also bulky. My goal in mentioning it was as an illustration of a threat from left field that most people here probably had not heard of. There may be some other technology out there that I am unaware of that is more viable - with the rate of change of technology this is one of the risks with technology investing - the better mousetrap may be round the corner but nobody sees it until they step on it! Gary