Evergreen storage: 360 TB of data and 13.8 billion years li…

Evergreen storage: 360 TB of data and 13.8 billion years life.

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University of Southampton have developed a technology that allows digital data to be stored virtually forever.

Using nanostructured glass, scientists at the University's Optoelectronics Research Center (ORC) have achieved such digital data recording and retrieval processes with so-called "5-dimensional" (5D) preservation: documents were recorded using an ultrafast laser, which produces extremely fast and intense pulses of light on three layers of dots, separated by 5 micrometers (a micrometer is one millionth of a meter).

A single disk can hold up to 360 TB (terabytes) of data, can withstand temperatures of up to 1000°C, and, at room temperature, can have a virtually unlimited lifespan (at 190°C it reaches 13.8 billion years).

As a form of stable and secure portable storage, the technology could be very useful for organisations with large archives, such as museums and libraries, to store large amounts of information. Professor Peter Kazansky, from the ORC, said of the discovery: “It is exciting to think that we have created a technology to preserve documents and information, capable of preserving it in space for future generations.

This technology could provide the last evidence of our civilisation: everything we have learned will not be forgotten.”