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Compact discs could be history within five years, superseded by a new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.