Now you don’t have to worry about your digital files being lost on an old hard drive. Microsoft Research has taken Project Silica out of the lab and turned it into a real system that uses regular glass. They use special lasers to write data into borosilicate glass, creating a storage medium that can last for 10,000 years. This is more than just an experiment; they’ve already stored 4.8 terabytes on a piece of glass about the size of a drink coaster.
What’s most impressive is how tough this storage is. You could put these glass slabs in boiling water or even a microwave, and the data would still be safe. Because glass doesn’t need power to keep the data intact, it’s possible to create huge archives that don’t use any electricity for cooling or upkeep. This could mean the end of the Digital Dark Age.
🧠 One glass slab holds 4.8 terabytes of permanent data.
⚡ Lasers etch 301 layers of data into 2mm of glass.
🎓 Borosilicate glass reduces the cost of archival storage.
🔍 Accelerated aging tests prove the data lasts 10 millennia.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/microsofts-new-10000-year-data-storage-medium-glass/
#DataStorage #Microsoft #FutureTech #ProjectSilica #Storage #Backup #Archive #DR #BC