Those totally look like the isolinear chips from Star Trek

  • @voodooattack
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    871 year ago

    Data is written by two million laser beamlets that punch QR code-like nano-scale patterns into the surface of the media. The laser pulse is sharpened by a digital micromirror device, and shaped by microscope optics onto the surface of the data carrier. This process imprints holes – or no holes – onto the surface layer, which represents binary information.

    It’s futuristic punchcards. We’ve come full circle.

      • @Chobbes
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        171 year ago

        Pretty much, yeah! CDs and blu-rays aren’t all that different from punch cards, as the data is literally stored as indentations on the disc with a reflective layer. Arguably CD-RWs are kind of different as they change the reflectivity of a material itself… Hard drives and floppies are maaaaybe slightly different too because they use changes in magnetism instead of physical indentations too. You could probably argue that flash and DRAM aren’t glorified punchcards? But I mean, ultimately all data is stored in a physical medium somehow so it’s always going to have some resemblance!

    • @Selmafudd
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      111 year ago

      Or even eched tablets, we’ve double backed on the full circle.

      • Froyn
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        31 year ago

        “Alright class, pull out your chisel and slate…”

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      A punchcard is two dimensional. Actually you can have multiple dimensions on a punch card, the positions of the card can store different data and you can determine what that is by the position of holes on another part of the card.

      Whereas a paper tape, or a magnetic tape is serial and has only one dimension (you can divide the tape into different bands though).

  • Davel23
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    271 year ago

    I’ve been seeing news stories like this every couple of years for most of my life, and yet storage technology just continues to plod along at the same pace it always has. Nothing ever comes of it.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      Just as you probably never see tape storage, you would never see this storage method either, as it’s not intended for personal use.

      However, while you do not see tape storage being used, it’s maybe what the majority of world’s storage uses.

  • @Seasm0ke
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    251 year ago

    So am I wrong to say this is a stone tablet hard drive? Doesn’t seem like you can overwrite data on it

    • HopeOfTheGunblade
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      171 year ago

      Yeah, looks like write once. Which, we got a lot of mileage out of CD-Rs, libraries are useful.

      • @Chobbes
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        81 year ago

        I feel like we don’t appreciate the history of data storage enough! It’s kind of wild looking at how different the world was when CD-Rs came out. They could store substantially more data than a typical hard drive of the time and were dirt cheap. So you would get bulletin boards hosting content from optical drives and stuff. It’s also (partially) why you would have to use discs for games in the past, instead of just installing them to the hard drive. When hard drives are expensive it’s probably better to just stream music and assets from an optical disc instead of taking up precious space. Sometimes you could play a game (or part of it) without the disc, but you wouldn’t get music because that was left on the disc.

        • Froyn
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          51 year ago

          Sometimes you could even put the game in the CD player and listen to the game tracks!

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        I would even argue most storage is used as write once storage. From backup systems to libraries, a lot of data is data we want to just record, and never overwrite.

    • @EatYouWell
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      131 year ago

      You don’t need to. These are intended for backups and data archiving where storage density matters the most

      • @Seasm0ke
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        41 year ago

        Seems like thered be some extra hoops to get through for differential backups, impossible to us for most daily applications, probably better suited for things like laboratory and archives…

    • ferret
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      21 year ago

      It looks like you can’t overwrite new data, but you can still punch it full of ones :p

  • @A_A
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    161 year ago

    … Data can be written at GBps speeds, with TB/square-centimeter areal densities …

    Say, 8 Tbits/cm² (so 1 TB/cm²) …
    this is aprox ( 10-7m )2 unit cells.

    Conventional optical microscopy cannot resolve this, so, maybe they are using evanescent surface optics ?

      • @A_A
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        81 year ago

        Very happy to hear you saying this, well, this is science not magics :
        Evanescent field
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanescent_field
        In electromagnetics, an evanescent field, or evanescent wave, is an oscillating electric and/or magnetic field that does not propagate as an electromagnetic…

        • @Crackhappy
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          181 year ago

          I like your funny words, magnet man.

          • @A_A
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            81 year ago

            Thanks for these kind words Mr C. Happy.
            (I know there must be a joke and I’m sorry that I do not get it. I have a lot of difficulty to grasp many jokes. Thanks anyway.)

            • CosmicApe
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              51 year ago

              The line “I like your funny words, magic man” is from this scene from Clone High. People use it when they want to show they don’t understand what was said but appreciated it none the less. CrackHappy changed it to “magnet man” because they are least got that much from what you were saying.

              • @A_A
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                61 year ago

                Aaah ! that’s why ! Thanks :)
                People wouldn’t believe but since 10 years I’ve watched maybe 5 to 10 hours (total) of video including YouTube, TV and whatever. Also went to cinema maybe five times.

                • CosmicApe
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                  61 year ago

                  Missing the odd pop culture reference is understandable in that case haha

    • @RubberElectrons
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      1 year ago

      Good question. “Everything was built with CoTS components”… Hmm.

    • @tonbo
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      31 year ago

      I think it’s 3dimensional not 2

      • @A_A
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        11 year ago

        This would absolutely make sense. Unfortunately, they don’t say whether or not (it’s 3D) in the article. Well … they do describe it as a microscopic QR code which is 2D.

      • @A_A
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        11 year ago

        Yes I agree : they must have a very expensive, very powerful and very precise writing device.

      • @Klear
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        31 year ago

        CD-R is the standard CD. CD-RWs are the rewritable ones.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        CD-ROMs are read-only(-memory) & usually stamped plastic covered with mirror-ish surface (aluminum-somethings prob?).

        CD-R have an (recordable) organic layer on top you can burn lil patterns into, once only.

        CD-RW can be re-written several times.

        But none of them really last long.

        • ChaoticNeutralCzech
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          111 months ago

          Many pressed CD-ROMs and audio CDs will likely last over 100 years if stored properly. However, the tolerances in the standard are high so lots of manufacturers use cheaper materials and processes than intended while still producing discs with the CD logo. It will take decades before we really know which were worse than others. The most likely point of failure is delamination, which will leak air between the layers and oxidize the aluminum coating in a process named laser rot after Laserdiscs, the earliest commercial optical disc system.

          Anyway, the longetivity of (re)writable CDs is indeed usually below 20 years.

          • @[email protected]
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            111 months ago

            Yes, storage is very important in the long run.

            And music industry indeed had some of the thiccest disks afaik.

            • ChaoticNeutralCzech
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              111 months ago

              No, it’s not about the thickness. Most of it is clear plastic anyway, the data layer is only in the top few dozen micrometers. Also, all CDs and later 12cm discs were 1 mm thick by spec.

              • @[email protected]
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                111 months ago

                Yes, I am talking about the top layer - some are def thiccer and more scratch resistant (I didn’t mean thicket like you would notice looking at it from the side).

          • IONLYpost
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            8 months ago

            The recording layers of the CDDAs (1983-1987) had already vanished. So they lasted no longer than 40 years.
            "SHM-CD"s would probably meet that 100 year mark but DVDs made them pointless by the time they were first released.

  • JohnWorks
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    91 year ago

    Based on the demo video I’m assuming this is more for archival storage rather than on demand. So more like a tape replacement rather than hard drive?

    • BananaTrifleViolin
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      81 year ago

      Yes. Hugely important topic in itself. M-Disc is the current best we have, with claims they will last 1000 years if properly stored (limited by the plastic degredation). But ceramics should be more stable, and the speed claims look good. This is not the only tech solution vying to be a long term contender but looks like a potential good one.

  • wrath_of_grunge
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    11 year ago

    The firm claims it’s cost-effective, fast, and scalable technology for future data storage because no energy is consumed to store data and it can last more than 5,000 years due to the fact it’s made from ceramic. The best hard drives and best SSDs, by contrast, need to be replaced every few years.

    lol, they for real discovered something that was discovered 12,000 years ago. ceramic keeps for a long time.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure their discoveries here are not the material properties of ceramics, but how to turn them into cost effective digital storage devices.

      • Sloan the Serval
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        11 year ago

        He who keeps the old akindle, and adds new knowledge, is fit to be a teacher an inventor.