Microsoft Research published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, which presented Project Silica, a system for long-term data storage based on laser engraving of information inside glass. It is a technology that could fundamentally change the way data is archived in the future.
One square glass plate 12 centimeters wide and only 2 millimeters thick can store up to 4.84 TB of data. What makes this technology particularly significant is the extreme longevity of the records. Data can be stably stored for more than 10,000 years at room temperature, and even when exposed to temperatures up to 290 degrees Celsius, the integrity of the records remains preserved for the same period of time.
How Project Silica works
Unlike earlier experiments that relied on expensive fused quartz, Microsoft is using borosilicate glass, a material already widely used in cookware and oven doors. This move solves one of the key problems for commercial application – the high cost and limited availability of materials.
Data is written using a femtosecond laser directly into the interior of the glass, forming nano-structural deformations that represent a digital record. The recording density reaches 1.59 Gbit per cubic millimeter, with the possibility of storing as many as 301 layers of data within one glass plate. Two types of records have been developed, with a significantly reduced number of laser pulses required to form one element of the database, which increases the efficiency of the process.
Reading the data is done using a microscope with a single camera, which detects differences in the refractive index of light inside the glass. The resulting recordings are then processed using convolutional neural networks and error correction mechanisms, thus ensuring a reliable reading of the data.
However, the technology still has limitations. The current writing speed is about 66 megabits per second, which means that it takes more than 150 hours to completely fill one glass plate with a capacity of 4.84 TB. This is precisely the main challenge that Microsoft must solve before wider practical application.
Despite this, Project Silica clearly demonstrates the potential of glass as a medium for archiving data in time frames far beyond the capabilities of today’s magnetic and semiconductor solutions.