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InPhase Technologies, the leader in holographic data storage, today announced that it will develop high-performance rewritable holographic data storage media through a project grant from the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The two-year project, to be administered by NIST, commenced in October, 2002 and consists of a $2,000,000 grant to InPhase from the ATP for the development and demonstration of rewritable recording materials for holographic data storage systems that offer ultrahigh storage density and data access rates.

The ATP grant is significant in that it signals a greater commitment on the part of the U.S. government to spearhead ongoing research and development for key U.S. technologies, such as holographic data storage. InPhase is poised to become the first company to deliver commercially viable holographic products to the market. The InPhase Tapestry™ system has already demonstrated recording and playback of digital video.

"More new information is expected to be stored in 2002 and 2003 than in all of previous human history, according to a University of California at Berkeley study on information storage," said Lisa Dhar, Vice President of Media Development at InPhase Technologies. "This heightens the demand for technologies that can store more digital data in smaller spaces, and access it faster than ever before. Holographic technology presents a strong contender for the next generation of recording media."

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, in April, 2002, InPhase became the first company to demonstrate a holographic video recording system. The development of rewritable media for high-capacity video files, such as HDTV programs, would provide critical technology for next-generation consumer and professional electronics products.

Unlike conventional optical media, the InPhase Tapestry technology offers a physical layer of content protection through its volumetric recording, rather than surface recording, so that fingerprint identification, for example, can be embedded in the actual media.

Under terms of the ATP project, InPhase will retain the desirable characteristics of its existing holographic materials while adding a reversible imaging component. After optimizing the new material and characterizing the resulting media, InPhase will build a device to demonstrate recording and recovery of streaming digital video files.

Earlier this year, InPhase won a contract from Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group™, on behalf of the National Technology Alliance (NTA), for the development of an automated holographic media manufacturing system. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) manages the NTA program as the Executive Agent for the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. The $600,000 grant marked the fourth contract that InPhase had received from the NTA, dating back to 1994, for a total of $3.5 million.