Optical Disc Archive


Optical Disc Archive is a proprietary storage technology that was introduced by the Sony Corporation. It uses removable cartridges, where each cartridge holds 11 optical discs. Each of the internal optical discs is similar to, but not compatible with, a Blu-ray disc. The latest version of the cartridge, that has a total capacity of about 5.5TB, uses discs that hold about 500GB each. The technology was publicly announced on 16 April 2012 during the NAB Show with the first units shipping in February 2013.

Media

ProductIntroducedCapacity Write Type
ODC300R2013300Write-Once
ODC300RE2013300Rewritable
ODC600R2013600Write-Once
ODC600RE2013600Rewritable
ODC1200RE20131200Rewritable
ODC1500R20131500Write-Once
ODC3300R20163300Write-Once
ODC5500R20195500Write-Once

Hardware

ProductIntroducedCategoryMaximum Number of DrivesNumber of SlotsReads Media GenerationWrites Media Generation
ODS-D55U2013Stand Alone Drive1N/A11
ODS-D77U2014Stand Alone Drive1N/A11
ODS-D280U2016Stand Alone Drive1N/A1,21,2
ODS-D380U2019Stand Alone Drive1N/A1,2,32,3
ODS-L102013Small Library21011
ODS-L30M2014Library Master2301,2,3*1,2,3*
ODS-L60E2014Library Extender4611,2*1,2*
ODS-L100E2014Library Extender0101n/an/a
PetaSite EX Master Module2019Library Master219121,2,32,3
PetaSite EX Cartridge Extension Module2019Library Extender0816n/an/a
PetaSite EX Drive Extension Module2019Library Extender21961,2,32,3

*Depending on configuration.

Roadmap

Generation 3 of the Optical Disc Archive technology was announced for early-2020 release. Generation 3 increased the cartridge capacity to 5.5TB, the read speed to 375MB/s and the write speed to 187.5MB/s.

Media roadmap

and Panasonic Corporation on announced on 10 March 2014 their cooperation in producing a new media trademarked as Archival disc. The Archival disc media will be used in future Optical Disc Archive Media to achieve at least 6TB of storage.