Holographic Crystal Memory

Jerry Williams discussed Holographic data storage in the kind of
detail that I like.  But one other thing should be mentioned:

Packaging

The crystal itself could be 1/40 cm on a side, but fit into a package
the size of a domino.  I could see that customers would want this for
several reasons:

1)  If it is too small, it can be easily lost.

2)  It needs to be protected from harmful elements:  atmospheres, rain,
dust, and coffee to name a few.  (How many of you drink coffee or something
else while you are at the computer?)

Also, the crystal could be made of a material that easily dissolves, and
thus moisture in the air would ruin the surface.

3)  Big enough so that a label can be placed on it.  (Important!!!! Would
not want to load "Debbie Does Gushemegga"  by accident instead of "Fluffy
goes to the Circus" when showing it to the kids.


4)  A company would never sell a tremendous amount of data storage.  They
want their customers to continue buying their product, so give them 5
hours.  Thus, the chip could be very small, allowing more to be sold per
production unit.  One could say this makes the company more profit, but
more importantly it keeps the cost of the product down (remember your
supply and demand curves , and rate of return from economics?).


Can anyone else think of other reasons why a small chip would be placed in
larger package?  The package could still be the size of a domino, but I
would imagine it would be a little bigger, for the above reasons.  This
would not apply to computers, but then they also might have a special
packaging for the memory.  Remember, the company who manufacturers the
computer might buy its memory cells from the Holographic company.  The
Holographic company might make special memory cells (hold more data because
they are bigger) but they might still include them in some sort of package
for protection.

Steven B. Fellows
[email removed]