InPhase Technologies Signs OEM Agreement with asm

InPhase Technologies, the world’s leader in holographic data storage, today announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention that it has signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with asm, a leading European developer of optical storage library systems. The agreement will enable the roll-out of the first holographic archival systems, using InPhase’s patented Tapestry™ HDS-300R holographic drives, for customers in the broadcast, government, medical, and I.T. markets.

InPhase, asm, and QStar will demonstrate the first holographic video archive system, in the Maxell Corp. Booth #C6932 in the Las Vegas Convention Center at NAB. The system will store more than 200 hours of high-definition (HD) video (at 100 megabits per second, or Mb/s) or more than 800 hours of standard definition (SD) video (at 25 Mb/s) on 32 pieces of Maxell holographic media. InPhase will ship the initial HDS-300R drives in the fourth quarter of 2006 to OEM customers, including asm.

The asm library provides a permanent and secure archive for video content. InPhase Tapestry-equipped asm libraries are scalable, offering as much as 1,095 TB or 24,146 hrs of HD at 100 Mb/s on 3,648 pieces of media.

“The introduction of the first holographic archive systems, from asm, will provide broadcast customers, and other data-intensive enterprises, with a reliable, scalable solution for storing and accessing vital assets,” said Art Rancis, vice president of InPhase Technologies. “As our initial customers come on line, we look forward to further work with asm to provide the next generation in optical storage technology.”

The InPhase HDS-300R drive records 300 gigabytes (GB) on a single disk with a transfer rate of 20 megabytes per second (MB/s), or 160 megabits per second (Mb/s). The HDS-300R will enable broadcasters to record 35 hours of broadcast-quality (19 Mb/s) video on a single disk in 250 minutes (160 Mbps transfer rate). InPhase will begin shipments of the product to OEM customers at the end of 2006.

“asm intends to integrate the Tapestry technology throughout the entire product line,” said Johann Deters, Managing Director of asm. “The integration will be done as a parallel process, while InPhase continues to move toward developing the drive device. When InPhase releases the drives and media, asm will be ready to deliver libraries with the new technology already integrated, so units are expected to be available in 2007.”

InPhase announced its first broadcast customer, Pappas Telecasting, at NAB 2006. Pappas will incorporate the InPhase Tapestry™ holographic drives into an archival storage system for its flagship stations, KAZR-TV/KREN-TV, in Reno, Nevada.