Page 1 of 1

Microsoft Unveils Project Silica, a Durable Silica Glass-based Optical Storage Media

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2019 11:47 am
by Err
https://www.techpowerup.com/260823/micr ... rage-media
Microsoft's cloud computing business unveiled Project Silica, a cold-storage device that's designed to stand the test of time. Essentially an optical storage media, it is a 7.5 cm x 7.5 mm x 2 mm square piece of glass that can store up to 75.6 GB of data (inclusive of error-correction code). Unlike conventional optical media such as CD or Blu-ray, which relies on etching pits of different lengths on a plastic substrate to denote ones and zeros, project silica uses nanoscale gratings and deformations, while AI is used for error-correction to overcome any aging of the media. The company developed a proof-of-concept using quartz glass.
It's seems we've come full circle as some of the first recordings ever were made on glass photo negatives. This is very cool tech but I wonder why they didn't make the wafer large enough to hold 100 GB. That would be roughly equivalent to a dual layer Blu-Ray disc.

Re: Microsoft Unveils Project Silica, a Durable Silica Glass-based Optical Storage Media

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 4:23 am
by normalicy
I get the impression they are still in the prototyping phase. So, they may go larger. Or there may be worries about the size causing cracks or being more likely to fail. Did you see the read/write times? Definitely just for archival purposes.