The Sundarban 
A closeup of the compare writing equipment.
(Image credit ranking: Microsoft)
Breakthrough improvements to Microsoft’s glass-based totally data-storage know-how suggest traditional glassware, akin to that mature in cookware and oven doors, can store terabytes of data, with the information lasting 10,000 years.
The know-how, which has been in vogue below the “Project Silica” banner since 2019, has viewed steady improvements, and scientists outlined the most modern innovations today (Feb. 18) in the journal Nature.
Within the unexcited stare, the crew confirmed they’d well presumably encode data onto traditional borosilicate glass — a durable, warmth-resistant vogue of glass that is most steadily mature in glassware show conceal in most kitchens. Beforehand, the scientists could presumably only store data on pure fused silica glass, which is pricey to ranking and accessible from only a few sources. They additionally demonstrated several unexcited data-encoding and data-reading tactics.
“The advance addresses key barriers to commercialization: cost and availability of storage media,” stare co-writer Richard Dusky, accomplice compare manager at Microsoft, acknowledged in a statement. “We have unlocked the science for parallel high-speed writing and developed a technique to permit accelerated aging tests on the written glass, suggesting that the data should remain intact for at least 10,000 years.”
The crew fitted- 4.8TB of data — identical to roughly 200 4K motion photos — onto 301 layers in half of glass measuring 0.08 by 4.72 inches (2 by 120 millimeters) at a writing charge of 3.13 megabytes per second (MB/s). Even if that is grand slower than the writing tempo of arduous drives (roughly 160 MB/s) or solid-deliver drives (roughly 7,000 MB/s), the scientists stumbled on that the data could presumably final bigger than 10,000 years. Most arduous drives and solid-deliver drives, by contrast, final up to about 10 years.
That longevity and balance are the core drivers of innovations treasure glass- and ceramics-based totally storage gadgets for chiefly archival reasons — somewhat than utilization in most day-to-day gadgets. In principle, these change storage formats are grand extra legitimate than unexcited formats and can abet as a long-time frame repository for the data we generate.
To demonstrate this conception, Microsoft scientists previously outlined plans to abet tune in the Global Music Vault in Norway. The news additionally follows any other unbiased breakthrough in DNA storage, with 360TB of data able to being held in 880 yards (0.8 kilometers) of DNA.
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Laser-targeted on archival storage
Within the stare, the scientists published several discoveries that together resulted in additional environment pleasant and note-efficient writing and reading on glass.
First, they detailed advances in a methodology referred to as birefringent voxel writing with laser pulses. Birefringence is the phenomenon of double refraction, and voxels are the 3D identical of 2D pixels. The scientists developed a pseudo-single pulse — an development on the outdated two pulses — in which one pulse can atomize up following polarization to form the principle pulse for one voxel and the second pulse for any other.
This came alongside parallel writing capabilities, in which many data voxels can be written at the identical time in end proximity, significantly growing the writing tempo.
The scientists additionally devised a unexcited storage variety in the form of “phase voxels,” in which data can be encoded into the section trade — the racy of the section of a fabric through adjustments in vitality and stress — of the glass as a change of its polarization, which occurs in the birefringent voxels. Here is possible with factual a single pulse, and the scientists additionally devised a unexcited method to read data held on this fashion.
In the end, the crew stumbled on a method to name aging data storage in voxels inside of the glass. They mature this form alongside commonplace accelerated aging tactics to establish that the data could presumably final bigger than 10,000 years.
Sooner or later, the crew will consider how to make stronger writing and reading technologies, together with methods to enhance the lasers that write the data into the glass storage gadgets. They are going to additionally pursue assorted glass compositions to receive the excellent cloth on which to store data on this format.
Chen, F., & Wu, B. (2026). Laser-written glass pills can abet data for millennia. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00286-5
Keumars is the know-how editor at Stay Science. He has written for a differ of publications together with ITPro, The Week Digital, ComputerActive, The Goal, The Observer, Metro and TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a know-how journalist for bigger than 5 years, having previously held the position of positive factors editor with ITPro. He’s an NCTJ-certified journalist and has a level in biomedical sciences from Queen Mary, University of London. He’s additionally registered as a foundational chartered manager with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), having certified as a Stage 3 Group leader with distinction in 2023.
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