It sounds amazing but Pioneer has developed a 16 layers Blu-ray Disc, which will be able to store up to 400GB. No, I did not add a zero by mistake! That is a lot of storage space for a disc, specially comparing with the 700MB CDs of a few years back. Even more amazing was the time frame between the dual layer 50GB, currently available and the new upcoming 400GB. Pioneer will release more details during the Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008, which is being held on the 13 July in Hawaii.

Apparently, the new Blu-ray would technically work in existing Blu-ray players because both use the same technology (not sure if I believe this part…). Unfortunately multi-layer discs have had problems in the past with cross-talk between layers but Pioneer says it was able to leverage its experience in optical disc production to dramatically reduce the data “bleeding”. Pioneer also spun the disc as a green product, noting that discs with larger capacities mean fewer resources are consumed to deliver the same data.

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