Cranberry says its DiamonDisc product, which can be played in any standard DVD player, is not subject to deterioration from heat, ultraviolet rays, or material rot due to humidity or other elements. The DiamonDisc has no dyes, adhesives, or reflective materials like standard DVD discs, and its discs are made from a vastly more durable synthetic stone. That's right: stone.
NOTE: Prerecorded disks manufactured in a factory will last quite a bit longer than the disks you record at home, perhaps 10 to 25 years. Mass-duplicated DVDs are made using an entirely different process known as “glass mastering.” This article will focus solely on disks that are recorded one at a time on an individual computer.Data is recorded on the DiamonDisc platter in much the same way as a standard DVD disc, but with DiamonDisc the burner etches much deeper pits. The DiamonDisc product holds a standard 4.7 gigabytes of data (the same as standard DVD disks), which amounts to approximately 2,000 photos, or 1,200 songs, or three hours of video,
While the DiamonDisc can be played back on any standard DVD player, recording the disks requires special hardware, which remains quite expensive at this time: $4,995. That price is expected to drop, however, as the technology becomes more popular. The burner plugs into any standard USB port and uses any standard Windows or Macintosh DVD burning software.
While waiting for the prices to drop, anyone may upload photos, videos or other content directly to Cranberry's Web site or mail them to the company. Cranberry will then write that data to a DiamonDisc and mail the disk to the customer. A single DiamonDisc costs $34.95; two or more individual discs go for $29.95; and a five-pack is $149.75.
The DiamonDisc technology was invented by researchers at Brigham Young University and was first brought to market by Springville, Utah, startup Millenniata. While Millenniata performs the R&D on the product, Cranberry does the sales and marketing. Millenniata is in talks with the U.S. Government and the military, which are looking for archival media.
Cranberry said it is also working on producing a Blu-ray version of its 1,000-year disc.
You can read more about the DiamonDisc product and the services available at http://cranberry.com.
All this begs one question: who will have the hardware to read these disks a thousand years from now?
