The density of digital storage media, comparable to onerous disks, has elevated tremendously prior to now few many years. Not all that way back, it took a refrigerator-sized system to retailer a number of megabytes of information; now, we are able to carry terabytes of storage round in our pockets. However regardless of these successes, there could also be a good higher path ahead. In spite of everything, high-density digital storage existed lengthy earlier than the pc age. To seek out it, you want look no additional than inside your personal cells.
Inside every cell in your physique, there’s a tightly-coiled bundle of DNA just some microns in size. Unstretched, this strand of DNA would prolong to over six toes. Nevertheless, as a consequence of its excessive degree of compression, a single gram of DNA can retailer over 215 petabytes of information in its quaternary language.
Seems like a fairly good possibility for general-purpose knowledge storage, doesn’t it? Atlas Knowledge Storage thinks so, which is why they’ve developed their Atlas Eon 100 scalable DNA knowledge storage service. By storing your knowledge in DNA, 60 petabytes may be compressed into 60 cubic inches. And due to DNA’s pure sturdiness, that knowledge will nonetheless be accessible lengthy after it has been forgotten about.
Knowledge is saved in artificial DNA (📷: Atlas Knowledge Storage)
Earlier than you rush to purchase your personal DNA storage answer, it is very important perceive what Atlas Eon 100 is and isn’t. It’s a long-term knowledge storage answer, however it isn’t a random entry digital machine which you could connect with a standard pc. The essential thought is that you simply ship the corporate your knowledge, then they synthesize DNA strands that signify it within the type of nucleic acids. As soon as the information is synthesized, it can’t be modified.
These strands of DNA are then dehydrated and saved below acceptable situations. The information is all there when wanted, however studying it out requires the usage of advanced and costly DNA sequencing devices. As such, it’s hardly a alternative for disk drives — but it surely might be a very good different to tape backups. The information density of Atlas Eon 100 is about 1,000 occasions higher than LTO-10 tape, and, in principle, the DNA ought to safely retailer the information for for much longer as effectively.
Atlas Eon 100 is unquestionably for very particular use instances at this level, however maybe future advances will finally convey DNA-based storage to each desktop.