The glass storage device holds 1.75 million songs that can be played for 13 years. (Image Credit: Microsoft)
For a while, Microsoft has been working on Project Silica, a glass storage device that holds huge amounts of data for many years. It all started in 2019 when the tech giant introduced this technology with Warner Bros and stored/retrieved the 1978 Superman movie on quartz silica glass. At the time, the 75 x 75 mm glass (1,000-year lifespan) could store 75.6 GB, and flooding, baking, scratching, demagnetizing, boiling, and microwaving Project Silica didn’t stop it from being read. Microsoft recently improved this tech, expanding its storage to several TB while promising a 10,000-year lifespan.
Data gets stored by “writing with an ultrafast femtosecond laser, reading through a computer-controlled microscope, decoding, and storing in a library.” The company even explained how this technology works in an archive-like setting. For example, thousands of these glass slides would sit atop shelves on a centuries-long wait for someone to retrieve the requested data. Then, robots follow along tracks leading to the correct spot and collect that slide of glass, handing it over to the reader. “Once we finish writing the glass and move it to the library, we design the system so it can never go back to the writer. It’s completely immutable,” says Richard Black, Research Director of Project Silica.
“This technology allows us to write data knowing it will remain unchanged and secure, which is a significant step forward in sustainable data storage,” says Black.
Microsoft expects to incorporate this technology into its Azure data centers. Other companies are also planning to use this glass storage device. Venture Capital Company Elire says it wants to use the tech for its Global Music Vault in Svalbard, Norway --- home to the Global Seed Vault. The Music Vault will preserve musical heritage for future generations, ranging from classing opera to modern pop and indigenous tunes.
This data storage approach can prove beneficial in the short term. For instance, it has the potential to consume less energy compared to today’s data centers, which require a lot of power to keep everything cool and operational. That also leads to more savings on electrical bills since the written slides are always stable at room temperature and don’t require energy to retain data. Also, companies won’t use up resources like time, energy, and money moving data from bad drives.
Before commercializing the technology, the team needs to tackle three or four developmental stages.
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