Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Start Up Claims Immortality For Data With Stone Like Disc


Start-up to release 'stone-like' optical disc that lasts forever
New optical disc aims for consumer market first, then corporate archives
 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218881/Start_up_to_release_stone_like_optical_disc_that_lasts_forever

Start-up Millenniata and Hitachi-LG Data Storage plan to soon release a new optical disc and read/write player that will store movies, photos or any other data forever. The data can be accessed using any current DVD or Blu-ray player.
Millenniata calls the product the M-Disc, and the company claims you can dip it in liquid nitrogen and then boiling water without harming it. It also has a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) study backing up the resiliency of its product compared to other leading optical disc competitors.
Millenniata CEO Scott Shumway would not disclose what material is used to produce the optical discs, referring to it only as a "natural" substance that is "stone-like."


http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/08/08/2222208/Start-Up-Claims-Immortality-For-Data-With-Stone-Like-Disc

This is something long overdue.  We don't have any recording media with a life span more then a few decades at best.

The horror stories of old films and magnetic tape recordings has been told over and over.

I personally experienced trying to recover data off 9 track tape and having the glue get gummy and the take stick to the recording head.

Even CD's and blue ray don't have much of a life span.

Any long term medium should be non-conductive, to protect against EMP.
UV resistant so not degrade in sun light,
Survive temperature extremes.
Be mechanically sturdy so it doesn't break
Resistant to long term water / moisture and microbial growth.
Resistant to long term exposure to low intensity radiation.  (natural background, and radon and other sources)



Plastics and other hydrocarbons like epoxy absorb moisture and break down with UV and microbial action.

Even Glass may possibly deform over 100's of years as it's a semi-liquid.
http://www.desy.de/user/projects/Physics/General/Glass/glass.html

This leaves only a few things that could work.

Silicon Carbide, Diamond and other hard crystals are probably the best bet.
Maybe graphene, nanotubes or other carbon forms.



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