Nintendo, the maker of the market-leading Wii videogame console, has reportedly co-signed for a patent on holographic storage and may be gearing up for development of this ultra high-capacity storage concept.

Nintendo signed the patent with Inphase Technologies, but bringing holographic storage to market won't be easy. (Inphase has been at this a looong time.)

Nintendo, one of the world's top three videogame console and handheld device makers, apparently is preparing to invest some big money into developing holographic storage.

A patent for holographic storage was recently co-signed by the Japanese entertainment hardware and software company, which is a clear indication that the console manufacturer is investigating new methods of data storage for future projects. (And that a leap in storage capacity!)

Holographic storage is a sector of the solid-state disk market with interesting potential, but development appears to have come to a plateau; only a couple of companies have been working on trying to bring it to market.

Inphase Technologies is by far the largest single developer of holographic storage, but it has recently suffered some setbacks and had been laying off staff, according to industry insiders.

Inphase and Nintendo filed jointly for the patent in March 2007. The patent describes the use of "miniature flexure-based scanners for angle multiplexing" as the key component in developing holographic storage. The patent was issued in February by the U.S. Patent Office.

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