A glass-based form of data storage that could preserve information for 10,000 years has been developed by researchers at Microsoft.
Long-term preservation of digital information has long challenged archivists and data centres. Magnetic tapes and hard drives typically degrade within decades, meaning the data has to be copied over to new mediums every few years to keep it readable.
Microsoft’s research arm has been trying to encode data on glass plates since 2019 as part of Project Silica, which aims to develop a more viable alternative to long-term data storage. As a storage technology, Silica offers volumetric data densities higher than current magnetic tapes, with over 7TB capable of being stored in a square glass platter the size of a DVD.
While magnetic tapes are also prone to environmental degradation – with optimal storage requiring cool temperatures, low humidity and no nearby strong magnetic fields – glass is a permanent data storage material that is much more resistant to extremes of water, heat and dust.
The new technique extends technology already developed for expensive fused silica, but applies it to ordinary borosilicate glass typically found in kitchen cookware.
Microsoft said it has developed a system allowing for parallel high-speed writing of glass as a storage medium and a technique that allows for accelerated ageing tests on the written glass, suggesting that the data should remain intact for at least 10,000 years.
The data is stored inside the glass with femtosecond laser pulses that etch the data directly into the material itself. Prior to the latest breakthrough, the technique only worked with pure fused silica glass, a type of glass that is relatively difficult to manufacture and available from only a few sources. The new technique stores hundreds of layers of data in glass only 2mm thick, and the reader for the glass now needs only one camera, not three or four, reducing cost and size. In addition, the writing devices require fewer parts, making them easier to manufacture and calibrate and enabling them to encode data more quickly.
As a research initiative, Project Silica has demonstrated these advances through several proofs of concept, including storing films such as Superman on quartz glass and partnering with Global Music Vault to preserve music under ice for 10,000 years.
