FUTURE OF DATA STORAGE
For most of us, data storage has only gotten easier.
Rather than messing around with computer hard drives with limited storage,
floppy disks, and rewritable CDs or DVDs, today we just hit “save” on whatever the file we’re performing on and let it be whisked off to the cloud. It’s a no
muss, no fuss approach to data storage that not only means we don’t run out of
space, but that we can also access our files wherever we go.
The idea of storing data in DNA sounds positively
futuristic. In some ways, it’s just the opposite. A long time before computers
existed (along with the humans needed to create them), nature had found out the
way to store enormous amounts of data within the sort of DNA, the building blocks of life as we know it. Now, some investigators are embracing the thought
of making artificial gene sequences that use the four base pairs of DNA — A, C,G, and T — to represent binary bits of information.
Several years ago, researchers at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia demonstrated that it had been possible to encode pieces
of code into the DNA of tobacco plants. They created an easy computer virus
then spliced it into the genetic makeup of a tobacco plant; in essence, cloning
it with the pc program still inside. Extracting the plant’s DNA and sequencing
it resulted in the message “Hello World” popping up on a computer screen.
As this technology continues to advance, it offers
an entire lot of potential in not just storage, but the power to hold out
things like pattern recognition across petabytes (one thousand million million)
or even exabytes (one quintillion bytes) of data.
Get
ready for 5D optical storage:
Of course, if super cold storage isn’t exciting
enough for you, how about the likelihood of revolutionizing data storage by
using lasers to carve terabytes of knowledge into tiny glass discs? This is the mission statement of researchers at the U.K.’s University of Southampton. In a quest to develop digital data storage which will potentially survive for
billions of years, they need to create a recording and retrieval process that
relies on femtosecond laser writing.
The storage solution is described as being
five-dimensional. Information is encoded in multiple layers, including the
usual three dimensions. However, it's also encoded in orientation and size of
imprinted structures — thereby giving it five degrees of freedom for data
storage. The storage allows for hundreds of terabytes per disc in data
capacity. It’s also got thermal stability up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Compared
to the vulnerability of mag tape, which lasts just for around one decade, this
approach seems nigh-indestructible by comparison.
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