New Sanyo laser tech promises 100GB Blu-rays

50GB ain't enough for you? Good news. Sanyo says it's created a more powerful version of the laser diode used in Blu-ray hardware that will effectively double the capacity of Blu-ray discs while also speeding them up.

Current Blu-ray tech is limited to two disc layers of 25GB each. Sanyo's new diode has twice the power of existing diodes, which would up the layer capacity to four while also letting discs spin faster, at speeds up to 12x (vs. today's typical 6x). The upshot is that 100GB could, theoretically, be burned to a disc in just 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the technology is still in the lab and, considering the relatively slow uptake of Blu-ray technology, there's no mad rush to push either capacity and speed up. (Instead, vendors seem focused -- wisely -- on getting prices to come down.) Macworld is reporting that the tech is at least a year or two away from implementation in the field, and there's no telling what it might do to prices.

Question for readers who still haven't bought into BD: Does double capacity sway you? Would faster speeds make you consider Blu-ray as a backup solution on your computer? And what price are you prepared to pay in order to get either a high-capacity set-top player or writeable BD burner for your PC?