Preserving information is one of the great modern challenges every user must face. Getting more capacity out of a medium is a fundamental step, but it also has to stand the test of time. Both details bring us to the University of Southampton, where a group of scientists has developed a new disk with a density of 360 terabytes per unit, and even at extreme temperatures it can remain stable for billions of years.
We won't deny it: we hate making data backups, but they are definitely necessary. Despite the notable advantages of today's storage media, none of them is eternal, and failures can appear when we least expect them. Now imagine this same problem projected hundreds or even thousands of years into the future. How will future generations get to know us if every hard drive, solid-state drive, optical disk, or tape backup has turned to dust? What we now call “written history” reaches back about six or seven thousand years, but the amount of information—of knowledge—lost for lack of proper preservation media is incalculable. Storing data for the very long term requires an advanced solution, and at the University of Southampton they believe they have one.
How the 5D quartz disk works
A group of scientists from the university's Optoelectronics Research Centre has developed a technique to store and read data on a nanostructured quartz disk. Each disk holds 360 terabytes, and the recording process uses a high-speed laser that creates three layers of points, each separated by just five micrometers. The technology has been named 5D since it takes into account the position of data on the disk, its size, and orientation (something like 3D + 2D). The first prototypes of these disks were evaluated in 2013, and even then their extreme durability was anticipated. Today, the disks maintain thermal stability up to a maximum temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius, and they can survive 13.8 billion years (an amount of years similar to the age of the Universe) at 190 degrees.
The official announcement does not give details on the durability of disks stored at room temperature, but from a human point of view, it is logical to take a shortcut and say “forever”. The next step is to find partners willing to assist both in the development and commercialization of this technology. The average user may not need such resistance in a storage medium... but 360 terabytes on a disk as big as a coin? Where do we sign?
