Posted July 10, 2013
360 Terabytes on ONE cd?
Researchers at the University of Southampton have managed to use lasers to record and retrieve data from pieces of glass.
They claim it could allow up to 360 terabytes, equivalent to 580,000 CDs, to be stored on a single piece of glass the size of a standard CD.
The process uses a laser to reorder the atoms in the crystal structure of the glass.
The size and orientation of the tiny structures the laser creates adds extra information in addition to their location.
These structures change the way light passes through the glass, meaning it can then be read back
This means huge amounts of data can be stored.
The scientists say that because the glass is stable and heat resistant up to 1,000°C (1,800F), it could also be used to ensure information can be kept safe for long periods of time in archives.
Professor Jingyu Zhang, who led from the University of Southampton, said: “We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organisations with big archives.
“At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan.
“Museums who want to preserve information or places like the national archives where they have huge numbers of documents, would really benefit.”
Dr Zhang and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology used device to record a 300kb digital copy of a text file into the glass and then reading it back.
It is the first time researchers had been able store a document in glass using the device and then read it back.
Previously the scientists created glass storage that could store the equivalent of a Blu-ray Disc – up to 50GB of data – but they now can store more than seven times that.
The scientists presented their latest work at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in San Jose.
The recording process, which is done by focusing a laser to imprint tiny dots called "voxels" into the pure silica glass.
The process makes the glass slightly opaque and polarises the light as it passes through. This can then be read using a optical detector.
The glass memory has been compared to the "memory crystals" used in the Superman films, which contain recorded holographic video and data saved by his parents.
Professor Peter Kazansky, supervisor of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at Southampton University, added: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race.
“This technology can secure the last evidence of civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”
Note the confuzzling around "360TB" and a little later "previous best was 50GB, now 7 times that".... O_o!
Researchers at the University of Southampton have managed to use lasers to record and retrieve data from pieces of glass.
They claim it could allow up to 360 terabytes, equivalent to 580,000 CDs, to be stored on a single piece of glass the size of a standard CD.
The process uses a laser to reorder the atoms in the crystal structure of the glass.
The size and orientation of the tiny structures the laser creates adds extra information in addition to their location.
These structures change the way light passes through the glass, meaning it can then be read back
This means huge amounts of data can be stored.
The scientists say that because the glass is stable and heat resistant up to 1,000°C (1,800F), it could also be used to ensure information can be kept safe for long periods of time in archives.
Professor Jingyu Zhang, who led from the University of Southampton, said: “We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organisations with big archives.
“At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan.
“Museums who want to preserve information or places like the national archives where they have huge numbers of documents, would really benefit.”
Dr Zhang and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology used device to record a 300kb digital copy of a text file into the glass and then reading it back.
It is the first time researchers had been able store a document in glass using the device and then read it back.
Previously the scientists created glass storage that could store the equivalent of a Blu-ray Disc – up to 50GB of data – but they now can store more than seven times that.
The scientists presented their latest work at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in San Jose.
The recording process, which is done by focusing a laser to imprint tiny dots called "voxels" into the pure silica glass.
The process makes the glass slightly opaque and polarises the light as it passes through. This can then be read using a optical detector.
The glass memory has been compared to the "memory crystals" used in the Superman films, which contain recorded holographic video and data saved by his parents.
Professor Peter Kazansky, supervisor of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at Southampton University, added: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race.
“This technology can secure the last evidence of civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”
