Microsoft can now store data for 10,000 years on everyday glass thanks to laser breakthrough

Microsoft can now store data for 10,000 years on everyday glass thanks to laser breakthrough

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A closeup of the research study composing devices.
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Development enhancements to Microsoft’s glass-based data-storage innovation suggest normal glass wares, such as that utilized in pots and pans and oven doors, can save terabytes of information, with the details enduring 10,000 years.

The innovation, which has actually remained in advancement under the “Project Silica” banner considering that 2019, has actually seen stable enhancements, and researchers laid out the current developments today(Feb. 18) in the journal Nature

In the brand-new research study, the group revealed they might encode information onto common borosilicate glass– a long lasting, heat-resistant kind of glass that’s frequently utilized in glass wares discovered in the majority of cooking areas. Formerly, the researchers might just keep information on pure merged silica glass, which is pricey to make and readily available from just a few sources. They likewise showed numerous brand-new data-encoding and data-reading methods.”The advance addresses key barriers to commercialization: cost and availability of storage media,” research study co-author Richard Blackpartner research study supervisor at Microsoft, stated in a declaration “We have unlocked the science for parallel high-speed writing and developed a technique to permit accelerated aging tests on the written glass, suggesting that the data should remain intact for at least 10,000 years.”

The group fitted- 4.8 TB of information– comparable to approximately 200 4K films– onto 301 layers in a piece of glass determining 0.08 by 4.72 inches (2 by 120 millimeters) at a composing rate of 3.13 megabytes per 2nd (MB/s). That’s much slower than the composing speed of difficult drives (approximately 160 MB/s) or solid-state drives (approximately 7,000 MB/s), the researchers discovered that the information might last more than 10,000 years. Many disk drives and solid-state drives, by contrast, last as much as about 10 years

That durability and stability are the core chauffeurs of developments like glass- and ceramics-based storage gadgets for primarily archival factors– instead of use in the majority of everyday gadgets. In theory, these alternative storage formats are far more dependable than existing formats and can function as a long-lasting repository for the information we produce.

To show this concept, Microsoft researchers formerly laid out strategies to maintain music in the International Music Vault in Norway. The news likewise follows another independent advancement in DNA storagewith 360TB of information efficient in being kept in half a mile (0.8 kilometers) of DNA.

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Laser-focused on archival storageIn the research study, the researchers exposed a number of discoveries that together led to more effective and cost-efficient writing and reading on glass.

They detailed advances in a method called birefringent voxel composing with laser pulses. Birefringence is the phenomenon of double refraction, and voxels are the 3D equivalent of 2D pixels. The researchers established a pseudo-single pulse– an enhancement on the previous 2 pulses– in which one pulse can divide following polarization to form the very first pulse for one voxel and the 2nd pulse for another.

This came along with parallel composing abilities, in which numerous information voxels can be composed at the exact same time in close distance, considerably increasing the composing speed.

The researchers likewise designed a brand-new storage key in the kind of “phase voxels,” in which information can be encoded into the stage modification– the moving of the stage of a product through modifications in energy and pressure– of the glass rather of its polarization, which takes place in the birefringent voxels. This is possible with simply a single pulse, and the researchers likewise created a brand-new method to check out information kept in this manner.

The group discovered a method to determine aging information storage in voxels within the glass. They utilized this technique together with basic sped up aging strategies to identify that the information might last more than 10,000 years.

In the future, the group will think about how to enhance composing and checking out innovations, consisting of methods to improve the lasers that compose the information into the glass storage gadgets. They will likewise pursue various glass structures to discover the perfect product on which to keep information in this format.

Chen, F., & & Wu, B. (2026 ). Laser-written glass tablets can protect information for centuries. Naturehttps://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00286-5

Keumars is the innovation editor at Live Science. He has actually composed for a range of publications consisting of ITPro, The Week Digital, ComputerActive, The Independent, The Observer, Metro and TechRadar Pro. He has actually worked as an innovation reporter for more than 5 years, having actually formerly held the function of functions editor with ITPro. He is an NCTJ-qualified reporter and has a degree in biomedical sciences from Queen Mary, University of London. He’s likewise signed up as a fundamental chartered supervisor with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), having actually certified as a Level 3 Team leader with difference in 2023.

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