this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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This long-term data storage will last 14 billion years (www.theregister.com)
submitted 1 day ago by kalkulat@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
153 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

"the medium is silica crystal, similar to optical cable, it's highly durable. It's also capacious: The technology can store up to 360 TB of data on a 5-inch glass platter."

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[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Is it rewritable to an extensive degree? If not its just a backup medium, not day-to-day storage. Still useful, but more disposable.

[–] candyman337@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is the type of thing that would be used for storage of essential human data rather than for general data backups I think

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

so porn collections?

[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would argue, and I'm sure many historians and librarians and archivists would agree, that "general data backups" are essential human data. Storing the data allows for later analysis, which may provide important insights. Even things that seem trivial and unimportant today can provide very important insights later.

[–] candyman337@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

That's a fair point

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 5 points 1 day ago

If a glass platter really holds 360TB and can be made affordable, it wouldn't really matter.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

The article says itis designed for cold storage of data, e.g. backups, or perhaps things that get written once and accessed infrequently. 

"Statistics show that between 60 to 80 percent of all data which is currently stored globally is classed as cold data," said Kazansky. "However, because of the way that humanity is developing, because of all of the budgets and AI and so on and so forth, a lot of businesses historically have been like, 'look, we are just going to use hard disk drives or SSDs,' which are expensive, which are bad for the environment because they consume a lot of energy. They're non-recyclable. They fail often, but they're just easier to use. Through inertia, people have been using the incorrect type of tool for a use case that can be used with a different tool."