The Perpetual Petabyte - a data storage device for eternity
The cave paintings of El Castillo are the oldest known writings of mankind and date back to 40.000 BC. With the advent of paper, microfiches and finally digital data storage devices, we continuously increased the storage density of our data storage devices. However, even microfiches, which are still considered the most suitable long-term data storage solution with a life expectancy of only around 500 years.
The aim of this project is the design of a novel data storage device capable of storing up to 1 TB of data per cm3 using an encoding concept with a theoretical life expectancy of 10348 years - effectively eternity. With data write speeds comparable to magnetic tape and read speeds outperforming any known data storage device by orders of magnitude, PerPetabyte aims for a break-through in long-term data storage solutions.
This project is supported by a grant from the Vector Stiftung.