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

The Register: Microsoft’s Project Silica promises eternal storage. It can’t get there from here. “Microsoft says that deployed at cloud scale, commercialized optical storage in glass is the only plausible, scalable solution for ultra-reliable, long-term data storage. That’s almost certainly right, and it will almost certainly never happen.”

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/03/02/microsoft-project-silica-glass-storage-10000-years-xcxwbn/

Project Silica's Glass Chip Stores 4.84TB for 10,000 Years

#Microsoft #MicrosoftResearch #Storage #ProjectSilica #GlassStorage #BigTech #MaterialsScience #DataManagement

 "#ProjectSilica is a working demonstration of a system that can read and write data into small slabs of glass. Main draw of the technology is that it takes no energy to preserve data and the data can be retrieved rapidly if needed. The #glass offers extreme stability, with experiments suggesting the #data would be stable for over 10,000 years at room temperature."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/microsofts-new-10000-year-data-storage-medium-glass

Microsoft aposta em armazenamento de dados em vidro para arquivos de longo prazo (10 mil anos)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/microsoft-aposta-em-armazenamento-de-dados-em-vidro-para-arquivos-de-longo-prazo-10-mil-anos/

10,000-year storage… on glass. Sure, why not 😼
Microsoft Research says Project Silica lasers etch data into 12×12 cm, 2 mm slabs, up to 4.84 TB, and accelerated aging suggests 10,000+ years at room temp with zero energy to preserve.
Only catch: writing is ~66 Mb/s, so a full slab takes 150+ hours. Archive or art project?

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/02/19/1939246/microsofts-new-10000-year-data-storage-medium-glass

#Microsoft #ProjectSilica #DataStorage

Microsoft reports excellent progress on attempts to encode data in glass using femtosecond lasers.

Project Silica is developing technology that could preserve information for 10,000 years. The system creates groups of symbols, which are then encoded as tiny deformations, or voxels into glass with a laser.

By splitting the laser into four independent beams writing at the same time, the team say the technology can record 65.9m bits per second. Microsoft claims they could store 4.84TB of data in a 12 sq cm piece of fused silica glass, 2mm deep – about the same amount of information that is held in 2m printed books.

“All steps, including writing, reading and decoding, are fully automated, supporting robust, low-effort operation”. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/18/scientists-new-way-preserve-data-microsoft #Microsoft #DataStorage #ProjectSilica #Storage #Data #ITData #InformatinTechnology #Lasers

Microsoft Research (@MSFTResearch)

Project Silica가 보로실리케이트 유리에 데이터를 인코딩하는 새로운 기법을 네이처 저널에 소개했습니다. 이 기술은 매체 비용을 낮추고 기록·읽기 시스템을 단순화하면서 10,000년 보존을 지원하도록 설계된 진보를 제시합니다(관련 논문 링크 포함).

https://x.com/MSFTResearch/status/2024162504348225677

#projectsilica #dataarchiving #longtermstorage #microsoft #nature

4.8Tb in in a piece of borosilicate glass measuring 0.08 by 4.72 inches (2 by 120 millimeters) at a writing rate of 3.13 megabytes per second (MB/s) using birefringent (i.e., polarization) voxels

Microsoft Unveils Glass Storage System Lasting 10,000 Years.

#ProjectSilica

- https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/microsoft-can-now-store-data-for-10-000-years-on-everyday-glass-thanks-to-laser-breakthrough
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/project-silicas-advances-in-glass-storage-technology/
- https://youtu.be/7EG1SnQGR_8?si=7JmyYrFB2407JDDE (if you prefer a podcast - first 8 minutes)

Project Silica avanza: Microsoft guarda datos en vidrio borosilicato más barato, con lectura por IA y promesa de conservarlos 10.000 años. https://aidoo.news/noticia/xZ8bn6

#Noticias #Microsoft #ProjectSilica #Almacenamiento #ArchivoDigital