"`Size Does Matter' — if you want to be pack leader in the optical storage business. And the latest contender for the title of `Digital Godzilla' has just stomped into the arena, promising a jumbo-sized offering that dwarfs all rivals in the field. United States-based storage player Iomega, has announced, it has been granted two optical storage patents, that if converted into a production process, can turn out Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) with a mind-boggling 850 giga bytes (GB)capacity — that is 850 billion bits of information. This will make the devices about 100 times bigger than the biggest DVDs available today — and with at least 20 times more capacity than the next-generation high-density formats being readied for year-end availability.

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Experts believe the transition from patent to product could take anything from two to five years. Today's 4.5 GB DVDs (9 GB, double sided) are set to be replaced by the high-density formats expected by end 2005."