Microsoft makes progress with Project Silica

Project Silica is Microsoft's so-called "Superman memory". The research team has been developing a method for several years that makes it possible to store large amounts of data on quartz glass. The research has been ongoing for several years. Now there has been a new status update on Project Silica, which hints at great things to come.

What is Project Silica?

The concept of "5D Optical Data Storage" (data storage on a 5D disk) was presented back in 2013. This is a quartz glass disk onto which data is transferred using laser technology. The five dimensions refer to:

- Alignment

- position

- Size

- Two visual points

Inspired by the Kryptonite crystals from the Superman franchise, the 5D data memory is also known as a memory crystal.

Fittingly, a research team at Microsoft managed to store a digital version of the movie "Superman" measuring around 75 gigabytes on one of these 5D memory crystals in 2019. The quartz glass plate measures 75 x 75 x 2 millimetres. At the time, the storage was linked to the claim that this storage medium could safely preserve the data for up to 1,000 years.

Since then, we have already made some progress.

The current status of Project Silica

A laser writes the data into the quartz glass. However, according to Microsoft, the previous process was inefficient. Improvements over the last few years should now ensure that the stored data remains on the write-once storage medium for up to 10,000 years. Logically, these are only predictions that the researchers cannot test exactly.

The reasoning behind this is that quartz glass is a very robust material. External influences have hardly any effect on the material. It can therefore easily withstand high humidity, heat, cold and other environmental influences without damage.

Research at Microsoft has now reached the point where a glass data carrier with the specified dimensions can store over 3,500 films. If we assume a size of 75 GB per movie, that would be over 260,000 GB, or 260 terabytes.

Microsoft describes the 5D storage concept as "durable, sustainable and cost-effective". Except for one particular disadvantage, this is correct, as a permanent energy supply is not necessary and storage is possible anywhere.

However, the writing process is complex and time-consuming. It is therefore not currently possible to access the data quickly. The method makes sense as a long-term storage medium, but is unusable for permanent use - at least as things stand at present.

Microsoft's research team honestly says that the concept is still a long way from being ready for the market.

Learn development with Microsoft Azure AI

The fact that the writing process with laser technology takes up a lot of time and resources is a disadvantage, but the engineers are already looking for solutions.

The research team is working closely with colleagues from Microsoft Azure. The AI technology Azure AI has already helped to speed up the decoding of the data. According to Microsoft, both writing data to the glass storage medium and reading data from the storage medium are much faster than they were a few years ago.

The development possibilities with Microsoft Azure and the implemented OpenAI service are manifold. You probably don't want to develop a new storage technology. However, applications and tools to make work easier are always in demand.

You will take your first steps in our Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals seminar. In addition to an introduction to Microsoft AI, you will learn how machine learning works and what relatively simple chatbots are already capable of.