InPhase Technologies has begun bulk shipping of its 300GB holographic storage disks and drives, the firm said yesterday. The Tapestry HDS-300R drive costs $18,000, with the 1.5mm-thick platters running to $180 a piece. The firm already claims a series of high profile customers, including Turner Broadcasting, the US Geological Survey, and Lockheed Martin.

InPhase's roadmap sees a series of capacity increases, with disks expanded to 1.6TB in 2010. Data is currently transferred from the platters, which are expected to have a 50-year lifespan, at 20MBps.

InPhase marketing VP Liz Murphy said: "We've also tried to make it as easy to integrate as possible from a software perspective. So it can emulate a DVD, CD-R, magnetic optical disc or tape drive. So software companies don't have to do any major changes to write to it in native mode."

Despite pitching the price point somewhere in the mid to high-end tape drive, InPhase says it is not interested in the backup market and will concentrate on archiving. CEO Nelson Diaz said: "We're not going to play in the back-up market at all."

A re-writeable version of the format is expected in 2008, however. ®