360 TB disc, withstands 1000 degrees C and last up to 13.8 billion years

[littleman]

http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/16/5d-discs-can-store-data-until-well-after-the-sun-burns-out/

Researchers at the University of Southampton's Optical Research Center announced on Tuesday that they've perfected a technique that can record data in 5 dimensions and keep it safe for billions of years. The method etches data into a thermally stable disc using femtosecond laser bursts. The storage medium itself holds up to 360 TB per disc, can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees C and are estimated to last up to 13.8 billion years at room temperature without degrading.

Each file is comprised of three layers of nanoscale dots. The dots' side and orientations, as well as their position within the three standard dimensions, constitute its five dimensions. These dots change the polarization of light traveling through the disc which is read using a microscope and polarizer.

[simplytheresa]

Amazing!

On the other hand, it makes me wonder who will have the hardware to read it in 100 years, much less a billion?

[rcjordan]

Reminds me of the effort to mark our nuclear waste sites as hazardous for future travelers.

http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/

[bill]

Anyone seen any estimates of when this tech might be considered for the consumer market? I was one of those people who got excited by the Millenniata, or M-Disc, when it was announced in 2011 (DVD made out of stone that was supposed to last 1000 years.), but they really haven't taken off. I'm ready to look forward to a new archival media that will outlast me (and possibly outlast the sun going supernova)

[rcjordan]

As SBTS ST noted above, the problem is keeping supported hardware and software to read it, Bill.  I'm pretty good at keeping archival hardware (need any 8-track tapes?) but it's easy to let something slip and break the continuity chain.  

Updates and migrations are another archive-killer. The IRS has repeatedly warned that you'd better keep your old accounting software, for instance, but nobody does.

Speaking of that, anybody have any 5.25" floppy disk readers? I need some files copied over to a thumb drive.

<added>
To answer your question; No.

[ergophobe]

M-Disc

Funny you should mention that - a good friend or ours was just (like 3 weeks ago) flown out to Utah for a ski trip to film a commercial for M-Disc. They had some high-profile production company doing the filming (apparently our friend got asked simply because she has a fairly high-ranking blog post about a massive data loss).

So they may be gearing up for a big push.

[bill]

I see a lot of information in German when I search for M-Disk. Must be doing well over there.

I was cleaning out my parents place a while back and found a ton of old 5.25 floppies...but no drives. Had to toss my old BBS dialer scripts that let me access local universities to then make long distance calls to BBS sites across the country. Doubt if any of them would still work, but it would have been interesting to see them again.