Ultra Density Optical

UDO optical disc storage media was developed as a replacement for the 9.1 GB Magneto-optical digital storage medium. The Ultra Density Optical was first announced by Sony on November 1, 2000.[3] It was later adopted with heavy investment by Plasmon, a UK technology company with extensive experience with computer archival backup systems and solutions.[4]

Currently, UDO/UDO2 is being championed by its development partners Plasmon, Asahi Pentax (responsible for the opto-mechanical assembly design), Mitsubishi Chemical, parent company of the Verbatim media storage brand, and various computer and IT solutions companies. Mitsubishi Chemical is the second major development partner of UDO media and the sole manufacturer of UDO media as of the 4th quarter of 2008.

On November 10, 2008, Plasmon creditors (led by Silicon Valley Bank) closed down Plasmon LMS (company) as CEO Stephen "FX" Murphy was not able to secure funding to keep the money-losing company afloat. The UDO media factory in the UK was shut down and dismantled.

On January 13, 2009, Alliance Storage Technologies, a Colorado Springs Manufacturer of optical technology and Service Provider, acquired the assets of Plasmon (including UDO and UDO2 technology) in a liquidation sale. ASTI currently sells and supports UDO technologies sold under the Plasmon brand.[5]

UDO uses a Phase Change recording process that permanently alters the molecular structure of the disc surface.

There are three versions of UDO/UDO media: a True WORM (Write Once Read Many), an R/W (Rewritable), and Compliant WORM (shreddable WORM).

Rewritable

The UDO Rewritable format uses a specially formulated Phase Change recording surface that allows recorded data to be deleted and modified. In practice, UDO rewritable media operates like a standard magnetic disc. Files can be written, erased and rewritten, dynamically reallocating disc capacity. Rewritable media is typically used in archive applications where the stability and longevity of optical media are important, but archive records change on a relatively frequent or discretionary basis. Rewritable media is typically used in archive environments where data needs to be deleted or media capacity re-used.

True write once

The UDO True Write Once format uses a different phase change recording surface than the rewritable media. Unlike rewritable media, the write once recording surface cannot be erased or altered, making Write Once the most stable in terms of data integrity, because the physical record is kept authentic. This level of data integrity is not usually matched by other magnetic disc or tape technologies using normal write once emulation.

Compliant write once media

UDO Compliant Write Once media has the same operational properties as UDO True Write Once media but with one clear and important difference. Through the use of a specially designed “shred” operation, individual records written to Compliant Write Once media can be destroyed once their retention period expires. The shred function is controlled at an application level and operates only on Compliant Write Once media.

UDO Drives Specifications Summary

• Media Load Time 5 s
• Media Unload Time 3 s
• Average Seek Time 35 ms
• Buffer Memory 32 MB
• Max Sustained Transfer Rate – Read 8 MB/s (this is on the outer diameter of the media only the inner diameter is a max of 4 MB/sec)
• Max Sustained Transfer Rate – Write 4 MB/s (with verification on outer diameter of media only)
• MSBF – Mean Swap Between Failure 750,000 load/unload cycles
• MTBF – Mean Time Between Failure 100,000 hours
• Interface Wide Ultra 2 LVD SCSI

UDO comes in both internal and external drive guises. External drives are also available as part a robotic autoloader. All current drives are designed for heavy duty use.

UDO systems use a blue-violet laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm, similar to the one used in Blu-ray Disc, to read and write data. Conventional MOs use red lasers at 660 nm.[8]

The blue-violet laser's shorter wavelength makes it possible to store more information on a 13 cm sized UDO disc. The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is limited by diffraction, and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, using a higher numerical aperture (0.85, compared with 0.575 for MO), the laser beam can be focused much more tightly. This produces a smaller spot on the disc than in existing MOs, and allows more information to be physically stored in the same area.

The opto-mechanism design of current Plasmon UDO drives was jointly developed with Asahi Pentax.

Currently UDO has an expected data archival life of around 50 years. Apart from the storage size, the discs (like Magneto Optical discs) are designed for durability and long term reliability.

A company called Blu-Laser Cinema announced in June 2005 that it was launching a new player using the UDO format to provide a secure viewing and editing platform for film production houses. Targeted towards the high-end video editing and production community, the unit featured a smart card reader and a USB dongle with an embedded biometric fingerprint reader to allow access only to authorized users.[9]