Science, Technology, and pawbs
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.
Or even eched tablets, we've double backed on the full circle.
Sounds like it would be difficult to rewrite/edit the data?
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).
It’s futuristic punchcards.
always was.
So am I wrong to say this is a stone tablet hard drive? Doesn't seem like you can overwrite data on it
You don't need to. These are intended for backups and data archiving where storage density matters the most
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..
It looks like you can’t overwrite new data, but you can still punch it full of ones :p
Yeah, looks like write once. Which, we got a lot of mileage out of CD-Rs, libraries are useful.
So like CD-Rs but with silica instead of organics.
I like the idea.
Seems more like a standard CD. It can only be written on once.
CD-R is the standard CD. CD-RWs are the rewritable ones.
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.
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.
Yes, storage is very important in the long run.
And music industry indeed had some of the thiccest disks afaik.
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.
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).
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.
... 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^-7^m )^2^ unit cells.
Conventional optical microscopy cannot resolve this, so, maybe they are using evanescent surface optics ?
I like your funny words, magic man
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...
I like your funny words, magnet man.
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.)
🤣
Good question. "Everything was built with CoTS components"... Hmm.
I think it's 3dimensional not 2
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.
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?
That's the impression I'm getting from it too
Storage tech isn't as sensationalized and vapor-heavy as battery tech, but I do still wish holographic versatile discs had been a thing.
That thumbnail looks cool