Researchers at Microsoft have developed a new data storage system using glass that can remain readable for at least 10,000 years. The method stores the equivalent of two million books on a device the size of a drink coaster.
The Microsoft team, led by computer scientist Richard Black at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, used a high-energy laser to imprint data into borosilicate glass, the same material used in ovenware. Their findings appear in the journal Nature, demonstrating a system that could preserve critical information for millennia without maintenance.
The system, called Project Silica, stores 4.8 terabytes of data on a 12-centimetre wide, 2-millimetre thick square of glass. That’s enough space for around two million printed books. Unlike magnetic tapes or hard drives that degrade in about ten years, this glass storage needs no temperature control or regular copying.
READ ALSO: https://modernmechanics24.com/post/cosmic-fireworks-reveal-universe-expand/
Microsoft built on earlier work by Peter Kazansky, a researcher in optoelectronics at the University of Southampton, who still holds the Guinness World Record for most durable digital storage. Microsoft began developing the technology in 2017 and has now created a more practical version using cheaper materials and faster writing methods.
Current magnetic tapes and hard drives encode data by magnetizing tiny areas of metal film. These tiny magnets lose their magnetism over time, forcing companies to copy and rewrite information every few years to prevent data loss. “The nice thing about the glass is, once it’s written, it’s immutable. You’re done,” Black explains.
The team fires a laser in incredibly short bursts, each lasting a few quadrillionths of a second. These pulses create what Black calls “plasma-induced nano explosions” at precise points inside the glass. Each tiny deformation changes how light travels through that spot, encoding data that can be read later using a microscope.
Tests suggest the data would survive 10,000 years at 290 degrees Celsius, and potentially much longer at room temperature. Long Qian, a computational synthetic biologist at Peking University, says the paper shows glass storage has moved beyond experiments to a “deployable archival system” that could transform how data centers operate.
WATCH ALSO: https://modernmechanics24.com/post/china-largest-offshore-solar-project/
Writing and reading data from glass is considerably more complex than using a hard drive. The system requires specialist hardware both to imprint information and to read it back. This makes it impractical for everyday file access but ideal for long-term archival storage of critical data that rarely needs retrieval.
The world’s need for data storage keeps growing, but current technology wasn’t built for the long term. Mark Bathe, a biological engineer at MIT, calls the glass alternative “impressive” and says it could serve as near-permanent archival storage for backup of critical data. Kazansky adds that by showing a complete system, Microsoft has demonstrated how this technology could “truly revolutionize the data-centre industry.”
