With the growth of data volumes, the requirements for the reliability of drives also increase. Microsoft announced an unusual alternative to hard drives – instead of traditional magnetic tracks and microcircuits, the company proposed the use of glass plates and a laser. Information recorded in this way is potentially stored for centuries. The developers demonstrated the principle of the technology in a video format.
A new development of the software giant called Project Silica involves multilayer data recording by using a laser on ultra-strong quartz glass using three-dimensional “deformations” in its structure. The process is vaguely reminiscent of a way to record onto old vinyl records, but technically much more complicated.