Digital technology is marching triumphantly across the planet, and scientists are hard at work on new ways of storing information - large volumes and for a long time. Both new materials for recording information and new ways of applying information to specific media are being investigated. While some companies store data at the bottom of the sea, other dreamers stare up at the sky, dreaming of giant skyscraper storage systems. A lot of innovations appear very quickly, fueling a race that ends with unlimited storage options.
Five-dimensional glass drive
Record performance can be achieved using five-dimensional nanostructures in glass plates. A team at the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Center has created a prototype the size of a 25-cent coin, capable of storing 360 terabytes of data and withstanding temperatures up to 190 ° C. The researchers believe that their invention can store data for up to 13.8 billion years (the age of the universe) because, unlike CDs and DVDs, where data is written on the surface and can suffer from scratches, 5-dimensional glass disks store information in their structure, where data not subject to shock and scratches.
Underwater data centers
As expected, Microsoft has a huge amount of data that needs reliable storage. Work in this direction led to experiments with deep-sea "cloud". As part of Project Natick, the data servers were encased in a huge watertight capsule and flooded in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington State. Two months later, a steel container weighing more than 17 tons was raised to the surface, where its contents - a data center with the computing power of three hundred ordinary PCs - were found dry and intact. This confirmed that the concept works, and in the future Microsoft may continue to work with underwater data centers, but at the moment the company has no definite plans.
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Iceland offers data center in the form of a skyscraper
Currently only in the concept stage, this epic skyscraper data center is expected to be located in Iceland. The building will act like a giant cylindrical motherboard with a hollow core that will allow natural air circulation to cool the equipment - aided by the cool local climate. The existing infrastructure of renewable energy sources assumes one hundred percent to provide the project with "clean" energy. In 2016, the project won third place in the eVolo skyscraper competition - although it is difficult to say if it will be realized.
Hitachi offered a quartz disk drive
The leader in the field of electronics, Hitachi company in 2012 released a new version of the glass 5-dimensional data storage device. Using binary code, the researchers packed 40 megabytes of data into a 1-inch slab of silica glass (from which, in particular, laboratory tubes are made). With a thickness of no more than two millimeters, each square platter holds the data of one CD, withstands temperatures up to 1000 ° C, and is resistant to chemicals and water. Information is read using an optical microscope, while the plates are completely transparent, regardless of the volume of recorded data.
Floating reader for personal electronics
An international team of researchers from South Korea and Scotland has created an experimental prototype storage device for personal devices such as cell phones and MP3 players. The concept of the device is based on a self-propelled reader that converts currents within the device into binary code - while being faster and more energy efficient than other existing technologies. Although the device is not yet used in consumer electronics, in the future it has the potential to dramatically increase data storage efficiency.
Data centers in abandoned quarries
While many researchers are actively developing new storage devices, colleagues are looking for alternative server locations. For some, the solution is right under our feet - abandoned quarries could be turned into underground data centers. Such a data center has a constant low temperature and humidity - namely, maintaining these conditions requires a lot of energy in data centers on the surface, while in the depths of an underground mine the conditions are optimal. At least one construction company, Callison, has already set up an underground data center in a mine in the northeastern United States. The exact location is being kept under wraps - which is consistent with a security-focused approach to data storage.