{"id":3860,"date":"2013-10-28T12:16:47","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T16:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=3860"},"modified":"2013-10-28T12:16:47","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T16:16:47","slug":"advances-in-data-storage-may-create-million-year-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/10\/28\/advances-in-data-storage-may-create-million-year-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"Advances in data storage may create million-year materials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storage capacity may have grown but the method of saving it has not.<\/p>\n

It’s still magnetic media that can be easily magnetized, zapped, erased or subject to decay. A CD-ROM will disintegrate. A hard disk platter can be wrecked by a speck of dust. And paper burns. That\\’s why anthropologists have to settle for reading stone carvings and painted hieroglyphics, since the library of Alexandria has been dust for millennia.<\/p>\n

However, MIT Technology Review reports a scientist named Jeroen de Vries at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and his team have designed and built a disk capable of storing data for more than one million years without the media decaying, and they\u2019ve performed accelerated aging tests to prove it.<\/p>\n

Data is stored on media in 0s and 1s and there must be an energy barrier between each digit. When this barrier is breached, data becomes corrupted. de Vries and his team did calculations based on some science and math beyond most of us mere mortals and determined they would need 63 KBT (a measure of thermal energy) to make the barrier last a million years, or 70 KBT to last a billion years. \u201cThese values are well within the range of today\u2019s technology,\u201d de Vries said.<\/p>\n

Building on current methods<\/p>\n

The disk is simple in concept and not dissimilar to how things are done now. The data is stored in the pattern of lines etched into a thin metal disc, which is how it works today, then covered with a protective layer to prevent the barriers from being breached.<\/p>\n

The metal used in etching is tungsten, which they chose because of its high melting temperature (6,191 degrees F) and low thermal expansion coefficient. The protective layer is silicon nitride, which they chose due to its high resistance to fracture and its low thermal expansion coefficient.<\/p>\n

storage<\/p>\n

As a test, they made QR codes with lines of data 100nm wide. They then heated the disks at various temperatures to see how the data fared. In theory, a disk capable of surviving a million years would have to survive 1 hour at 445 degrees Kelvin (341 degrees F), a test that the new disks survived with no problems.<\/p>\n

Still, Technology Review points out that the average house fire would destroy the disc. But its use isn’t so much in terms of storing data around the house or office. It would likely be used in secured storage vaults, or maybe on deep space satellites like the Voyagers. We sent those into space in the 1970s with audio recordings on gold-pressed 33-1\/3 rpm records.<\/p>\n

This would be the key to immortalizing our civilization. With so much knowledge lost from past civilizations, we\\’re left to guess or speculate, and hucksters like the cast of characters on “Ancient Aliens” can make up some really great fiction. In the absence of knowledge, misinformation thrives. So perhaps when archeologists dig up these discs in 10,000 years, assuming they can play them, they will know just what we were like.<\/p>\n

And they will either laugh or cry.<\/p>\n

via Advances in data storage may create million-year materials | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storage capacity may have grown but the method of saving it has not. It’s still magnetic media that can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[395,903],"class_list":["post-3860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-technology","tag-gadgets","tag-research"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-10g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5613,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/05\/23\/behind-the-curtain-how-netflix-streams-movies-to-your-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":0},"title":"Behind the curtain: How Netflix streams movies to your TV","author":"NCCT","date":"May 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"At peak times, Netflix accounts for around a third of the consumer Internet traffic in North America. This week, one of its senior engineers described how it gets all those movies to your screen. The company operates its own content delivery network (CDN), a global network of storage servers that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Networking"","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7910,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/03\/30\/bit-by-bit-intel-looks-to-quadruple-ssd-storage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":1},"title":"Bit by bit, Intel looks to quadruple SSD storage","author":"NCCT","date":"March 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the photos, videos, apps and tunes you have, the storage on your smartphone may not be enough. With that in mind, Intel is researching new ways to up the storage capacity in mobile devices and PCs without hurting the size or price of devices. One effort underway at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hardware"","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6754,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/31\/call-capable-samsung-gear-s-smartwatch-launches-nov-7-in-u-s\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":2},"title":"Call-capable Samsung Gear S Smartwatch Launches Nov 7 in U.S.","author":"NCCT","date":"October 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Gear S will land on all four major U.S. wireless carriers Samsung delivered a bit of bad news this morning with its Q3 2014 earnings report, but the company is at least looking forward to making some waves in the wearables market with the official U.S. launch of its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hardware"","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6877,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/11\/18\/intel-turns-to-light-beams-to-speed-up-supercomputers\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":3},"title":"Intel turns to light beams to speed up supercomputers","author":"NCCT","date":"November 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Intel will start using light pulses next year to move data at blistering speeds in supercomputers, yielding potentially massive advances in high-performance computing. It will use optical cables to move data more quickly than conventional copper wiring for linking computing and storage units. That faster data movement should improve system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hardware"","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5625,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/05\/29\/truecrypt-is-not-secure-official-sourceforge-page-abruptly-warns\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":4},"title":"\u201cTrueCrypt is not secure,\u201d official SourceForge page abruptly warns","author":"NCCT","date":"May 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the official webpages for the widely used TrueCrypt encryption program says that development has abruptly ended and warns users of the decade-old tool that it isn't safe to use. \"WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues,\" text in red at the top\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5902,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/07\/09\/so-long-truecrypt-5-alternative-encryption-tools-that-can-lock-down-your-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":3860,"position":5},"title":"So long, TrueCrypt: 5 alternative encryption tools that can lock down your data","author":"NCCT","date":"July 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Open-source legend TrueCrypt may be gone, but the usefulness of full disk encryption carries on. So what's a crypto fan to do now for their encryption needs? Well, you could continue to use older versions of TrueCrypt if you already have it installed. While the security community was shocked earlier\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}