Pioneer made its announcement on the feasibility of a 500GB Blu-ray disc. Previously announced a breakthrough on its 400GB Blu-ray disc housing a 16 layer with 25GB per layer capacity. This new study will have a 20 layer with same capacity per layer of 25 GB. Based on their research at Pioneer HQ, Tokyo, they have defined a draft specification of this 500 GB optical disc.

According to Pioneer,

With its strong support among the gaming, movie and PC industries, Blu-ray has become the de facto next generation storage system. While Blu-ray discs (BD), offering both 25GB and 50BG, are sufficient for current demands, we see the need for a technology that can support far greater capacities as HD streaming in particular becomes commonplace and users build larger files of digital content.

This high capacity Blu-ray disc will be made compatible with the current Blu-ray drives providing a long term storage. Problems have been reduced using Pioneers technology.

One of the technical issues addressed was the problem of ‘crosstalk’ between the separate layers of optical media. Due to the close proximity of the layers, data from one layer could interfere with that from another layer. By applying proprietary technology developed for its BD products and by stacking two different thickness of layers alternatively, interlayer crosstalk was reduced, thus further confirming the feasibility of 20-layer optical discs.