Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday November 02 2021, @08:01PM   Printer-friendly

High-Speed Laser Writing Method Could Pack 500 Terabytes of Data into CD-Sized Glass Disc

Researchers have developed a fast and energy-efficient laser-writing method for producing high-density nanostructures in silica glass. These tiny structures can be used for long-term five-dimensional (5D) optical data storage that is more than 10,000 times denser than Blue-Ray optical disc storage technology.

[...] In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, [Yuhao] Lei and colleagues describe their new method for writing data that encompasses two optical dimensions plus three spatial dimensions. The new approach can write at speeds of 1,000,000 voxels per second, which is equivalent to recording about 230 kilobytes of data (more than 100 pages of text) per second.

[...] The researchers used their new method to write 5 gigabytes of text data onto a silica glass disc about the size of a conventional compact disc with nearly 100% readout accuracy. Each voxel contained four bits of information, and every two voxels corresponded to a text character. With the writing density available from the method, the disc would be able to hold 500 terabytes of data. With upgrades to the system that allow parallel writing, the researchers say it should be feasible to write this amount of data in about 60 days.

5 GB / 230 KB/s = ~6 hours
500 TB / 230 KB/s = ~69 years
500 TB / 60 days = ~96.45 MB/s

Funding for the research was provided by the European Research Council (ENIGMA, 789116) and Microsoft (Project Silica).

Also at Guru3D and PetaPixel.

High speed ultrafast laser anisotropic nanostructuring by energy deposition control via near-field enhancement (open, DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.433765) (DX)

Previously: "5D" Laser-Based Polarization Vortex Storage Could Hold Hundreds of Terabytes for Billions of Years (same university, Peter G. Kazansky on both research teams)
Microsoft Stores 75.6 GB on Glass Disc Designed to Last Thousands of Years


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 03 2021, @02:15AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 03 2021, @02:15AM (#1192912)

    Imagine just never bothering to delete. Sure, un-link maybe, and if you could re-write you might want to do a security delete; but the kind of delete we normally do would be pointless. You could write to multiple parts of the disk for redundancy, and never delete. Keep revisions of everything you've got going back to the time you were old enough to use a computer.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 03 2021, @08:31AM (3 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday November 03 2021, @08:31AM (#1192947) Homepage
    The FBI would just love it if we all used that.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday November 03 2021, @02:22PM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <{takyon} {at} {soylentnews.org}> on Wednesday November 03 2021, @02:22PM (#1192974) Journal

      On the other hand, if this became something real and cost-effective, it would enable one hell of a sneakernet.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 03 2021, @03:46PM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday November 03 2021, @03:46PM (#1192992) Homepage
        So, the bandwidth of a 747 fully laden with these would be?

        I'm still in shock that something the size of my fingernail can carry 1000000 times the data the first random access mass storage device I ever owned. And is about 100 times smaller too. Storage has outpaced computation significantly. Long may it continue. At it, boffins!
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 03 2021, @04:40PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 03 2021, @04:40PM (#1193010)

          So, the bandwidth of a 747 fully laden with these would be?

          That depends: are you talking about an African or European 747?