Microsoft’s Project Silica has shown a groundbreaking approach when it comes to data storage. It looks to glass and femtosecond lasers, which, if successful, could revolutionize how we preserve information for posterity. This ambitious breakout initiative aims to design a long-lasting, portable, or even tiny solution that will satisfy our globe’s growing demands for data. According to projections, we’ll produce an incomprehensible 394 zettabytes of data by 2028.
Richard Black, the research director at Project Silica, leads a team of scientists who have developed two innovative types of voxels: phase voxels and birefringent voxels. These voxels act as the main units of data storage in this approach. They are only about 0.5 micrometers in length, width and height. To reduce crosstalk between the layers, they are intentionally spaced about 6 micrometers apart, preserving clarity and integrity in the data stored.
The technology encodes data so quickly and effectively by using one laser pulse to write every voxel instead of just each slice. You’ll be able to quickly move the precise laser focus back and forth across your glass surface. As a result, you can achieve powerful writing speeds up to 25.6 megabits per second. You can fit the equivalent of 4.84 terabytes of data on an area the size of a grain of salt. This tiny space is just 12 square centimeters and only 2 millimeters deep.
One of the coolest features of Project Silica’s approach is how it has incredible longevity. Test data generated using this method are still legible after more than 10,000 years of exposure at 290 °C. At room temperature, however, it should be even more durable. Richard Black explains, “At room temperature, glass is effectively a solid and does not flow on any meaningful timescale.” These properties combined with glass’s transformative physical properties make glass an ideal medium for archival as well as creative purposes.
Project Silica’s approach to ultra-high-density archival storage is crucially important because of its potential use in protecting historical and scientific records. Black notes, “It’s designed for data you want to write once and preserve for a very long time.” This technology is ideally suited for storing information in an archival format for hundreds of years. It’s an excellent tool for national libraries, scientific and research corps, and cultural heritage deposits.
The incorporation of femtosecond lasers in this new approach is central. These high-energy lasers shoot short pulses measured in quadrillionths of a second that carry immense power. Such rapid pace writing affords writers unprecedented control over their creative process. Black highlights the efficiency of this method: “This significantly reduces the power required from the laser to store data, and it does not require the laser focus to alternate between staying in the same place to deliver multiple pulses and movement to the next location.”
And though it can do all of these things, the femtosecond lasers, for now at least, are still expensive. These discoveries made by Project Silica have tremendous implications. Played right, they could provide enormous benefits in addressing the challenges of our growing, data-rich, connected world.
As other industries and organizations continue to produce more data every day, it will be necessary to find storage solutions that are sustainable. Project Silica is already taking us further than this challenge allows. It provides a hopeful vision of a future where the most important information is able to outlive us all.