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TC31

Information storage

Upcoming meetings
  • DateNameLocation
  • 13 December 2023TC31 133rd meetingTokyo, Japan

In December 2022, ECMA-421, ECMA TR/111 and a 2nd edition of ECMA-420 were published.

The new ECMA-421 standard specifies a quality discrimination method of optical disks and operating method of storage systems for long-term data preservation and it enables users to build data storage systems that use optical disks for long-term data preservation.

ECMA TR/111, a new technical report, describes the necessary perspectives to solve the problems of file system compatibility and also the age of the media and DRM in a data archive system capable of preserving data for the long term from a volume and file structure point of view.

The 2nd edition of ECMA-420, includes a clarification to the scope, some corrections of editorial nature and an update to the bibliography. The standard specifies device interface information and requirements for high-speed image retrieval and collation using holographic optical correlation based on shift-multiplex recording of coaxial holography.

In 2019, a 4th edition of ECMA-119 was published. The standard specifies the volume and file structure of compact read only optical disks (CD-ROM) for the interchange of information between users of information processing systems. The 4th edition incorporates, in Annex C, a description of the Joliet specification, which defines an extended volume space.

TC31 has several projects in development which include a standard defining a holographic data storage system with a capacity of 1000 Gbytes per disk to enable building long-term data preservation storage systems with features such as high capacity, long-term reliability and lower operational costs. TC31 also plans to develop a technical report that will describe the Universal Disk Format (UDF), a profile of the ECMA-167 standard. The UDF specification was originally published by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) and it is widely used as the volume and file structure for various optical disk systems such as DVD and BD.

Standardization of Optical Disks and Disk Cartridges since 1984 by Ecma.

CD and DVD standardization in Ecma by P. Weijenbergh, TC31 Chairman. The audio file is available below.