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Microsoft Unveils Glass Storage System Lasting 10,000 Years
Microsoft's Project Silica uses femtosecond lasers and optical readers to store 4.8 terabytes in glass, with data stability tested for over 10,000 years at 290°C, says lead researcher.
- Microsoft Research's Project Silica demonstrated a glass-based system storing 4.8 terabytes in a 120 millimetres by 2 millimetres glass piece, with data stability estimated for more than 10,000 years.
- A decade of research showed decade-old physics principles, and Peter Kazansky's 2014 University of Southampton work established laser encoding of terabytes into glass, while Richard Black, Microsoft researcher, demonstrated a more practical system.
- Using femtosecond lasers, the team encodes data by etching 3D voxels in glass with birefringence or refractive-index changes and reads them via phase-contrast microscopy and a neural-network algorithm with error-correction bits and automated focal-plane imaging.
- The process proved repeatable and automated, so it supports robotically operated data facilities for national libraries, scientific repositories, and cultural records, with sustainability attributes of low energy and recyclability.
- Other actors—Cerabyte and Kazansky's SPhotonix—highlight wider industry and cultural interest, though questions remain about costs and capacity scaling to 360 terabytes.
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Total News Sources26
Leaning Left2Leaning Right3Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution62% Center
Bias Distribution
- 62% of the sources are Center
62% Center
15%
C 62%
R 23%
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