Are SSDs Becoming Obsolete? Microsoft Creates a Storage That Lasts 10,000 Years

Microsoft has announced a breakthrough in its Project Silica initiative. Researchers have managed to store terabytes of data on ordinary borosilicate glass, the same material used to manufacture common kitchenware. The key feature of this technology is its ability to preserve data for up to 10,000 years.

From Expensive Quartz Glass to Affordable Household Material

Previously, expensive quartz glass was used for experimental development of this technology. Switching to borosilicate glass significantly reduced project costs and helped address material shortages.

Richard Black, Head of Research at Microsoft, emphasized that this breakthrough opens new opportunities for bringing the technology to market. Accelerated testing also showed that the recorded information remains intact for ten millennia.

Technical Specifications of Data Recording

During the latest tests, the team achieved the following results:

• Data capacity of 4.8 TB on a 2×120 mm glass plate (approximately 200 movies in 4K quality).
• Information is stored in 301 glass layers.
• Write speed of 3.13 MB/s.

Glass may lag behind modern SSDs and hard drives in speed, but not in reliability. A typical HDD or SSD requires replacement within about 10 years, whereas a glass storage can remain functional for up to 10,000 years.

This technology became possible thanks to new approaches: parallel writing and the use of phase-change voxels (3D pixels). A laser pulse is split into two beams, enabling simultaneous data formation in multiple voxels, increasing recording efficiency. Encoding now relies not only on light polarization but also on phase transitions of the material (changes in state under energy and pressure).

Potential Applications of the New Storage Method

Due to their properties, glass plates are ideal for creating global archives. Microsoft already plans to use the technology for the Global Music Vault in Norway.

The next step for Microsoft will be improving laser systems and optimizing reading methods to accelerate data access.