General Electric on Monday announced a new technology it says is capable of fitting 100 DVDs (500 Gigabytes) worth of information onto a single standard 5 inch DVD-R disc. According to the company, the technology is still in early development. G.E. is looking for ways to produce it at cost effective prices.

The technology, according to The New York Times, utilizes holographic storage. Says the paper,

The data is encoded in light patterns that are stored in light-sensitive material. The holograms act like microscopic mirrors that refract light patterns when a laser shines on them, and so each hologram's recorded data can then be retrieved and deciphered.

"The price of storage per gigabyte is going to drop precipitously," G.E. Scientist Brian Lawrence said of the technology.