SPhotonix 5D memory crystal: cold storage lasts 14B years
www.theregister.com
: SPhotoix moves its 5D Memory Crystal cold storage tech closer to deployment in data centers

“the medium is silica crystal, similar to optical cable, it’s highly durable. It’s also capacious: The technology can store up to 360 TB of data on a 5-inch glass platter.”

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    772·
    2 days ago

    Remember that CDs, CDRs, and so on were originally pitched as surviving 100 years. Turns out they last a highly variable amount of time but potentially as little as 2-3 years before they degrade, depending on the construction.

    So I’ll just say, this is clearly a theoretical value.

    Edit: Words.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        81·
        2 days ago

        CD-R and CD-RW discs use different methods of data encoding, and were never advertised as having similar longevity.

        I mean…sorry, but this is wrong. Mitsui CDRs for example are still being sold on retail sites advertising 100+ (and sometimes 300+) year longevity. Similar to bitrot, internet rot makes it hard to find advertisements from the 90s, but I am comfortable that was true then too and not limited to “gold” high quality discs like Mitsui.

    • dovahking@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      So it’s 2 to 3 percent of original estimate? That means it’ll last anywhere from 280 to 420 million years. Dead on arrival tech.

      • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        191·
        2 days ago

        Because they weren’t invented in 1925? Any durability testing you do today is about assumptions where you accelerate the process for a year by heating it or exposing it to water or whatever will degrade it most to some factor above normal and then extrapolate. That extrapolation was wildly wrong with CDs and it could be with this medium too. Or it might last a lot longer. What they have not done is written to a bunch of them and stored them in a variety of ways for 100 years and concluded they last that long.

    • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      The ones with metal pigment are still waiting to fail, the ones that died used a cheap organic dye, coz profit. This is Silica (i.e. quartz, a long lived rock) with variances in polarization and intensity,( hence 5D when combined with a 3D Crystal))

      OK generic marketing crap and will you have their special reader in a century, but it’s a solid way to project knowledge into the far future (gotta wonder if we need to re-examine some quartz crystals with this in mind ;}