Reg Hardware reports that TDK is planning to develop a Blu-ray disc with a 200GB capacity. The company already displayed a quad-layer 100GB Blu-ray prototype last year, but this latest endeavor could produce a disc with eight times the capacity of a standard 25GB Blu-ray disc.

TDK showed off a 100GB BD prototype in May 2005. The 100GB disc contains four data-storage layers, is recordable and supports a write speed of up to 216Mbps, double that of 50GB BD-Rs.

It's expected to come to market next year, though with 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs not yet shipping - media makers are now starting to push out single-layer, 25GB product - how soon that will be is open to question.

The launch timeframe of the 200GB disc - with eight layers, presumably - is even more uncertain. TDK simply said it was in the process of developing such a part, and didn't even hint when the prototype might appear, let alone commercially available product.