A group of researchers at the University of Southhampton in the UK have invented a new type of optical recording, based on femto-second laser pulses and silica/quartz media that can store up to 300TB per (1″ diameter) disc platter with thermal stability at up to 1000°C or a media life of up to 13.8B years at room temperature (190°C?). The claim is that the memory device could outlive humanity and maybe the universe.
The new media/recording technique was used recently to create copies of text files (Holy Bible, pictured above). Other significant humanitarian, political and scientific treatise have also been stored on the new media. The new device has been nicknamed “Superman Memory Crystal”, due to the memory glass (quartz) likeness to Superman’s memory crystals.
We have written before on long term archives(See Super Long Term Archive and Today’s data and the 1000 year archive posts) but this one beats them all by many orders of magnitude.
Continue reading “5D storage for humanity’s archive”