Microsoft’s blind bet on data centers is over. The Redmond-based company is betting on other techniques to feed artificial intelligence through Project Silica.
Microsoft has confirmed that ultrafast lasers with artificial intelligence are beginning to be a viable alternative to macro data centers. The industry giant can store information on quartz glass plates.
Store data for up to 10,000 years
Cloud storage is understood as something virtual, although it inevitably depends on physical data centers with hard drives and magnetic tapes. Microsoft has not managed to eliminate the tangible factor, it would be practically impossible, but it has taken it to the next level.
The company behind Windows has created quartz glass plates capable of preserving enormous amounts of data for up to 10,000 years. The standard for data center storage could change forever.
The one known as Project Silica has managed to take advantage of a material with minimal degradation over time, nor does it require periodic migrations. The result is an ultra-efficient system with lower energy consumption.
A laser to store data
Microsoft manages to store data by encoding it with lasers on glass plates. The laser creates three-dimensional nanoscale layers and deformations with marks at different angles and depths.
Artificial intelligence plays a fundamental role soon after. Machine learning algorithms can read and decipher the patterns on the glass using polarized light passed through the glass.
Glass is one of the materials with the best resistance to water, heat and dust, it is the most durable alternative to current data center supports. It is still early to talk about forecasts in real use, but Microsoft confirms that This technology allows information to be preserved for 10,000 years.
“We have unlocked the science of high-speed parallel writing and developed a technique that allows accelerated aging tests to be performed on written glass, suggesting that the data should remain intact for at least 10,000 years,” according to Microsoft in a statement.
Microsoft has forgotten about current techniques with silica, glass allows data to be stored in hundreds of layers in plates about 2 millimeters thick. Besides, the reading system only needs one camera instead of three or four.
Project Silica had achieved milestones such as collaborating with Global Music Vault to preserve music under the ice for 10,000 years or storing the film Superman in quartz glass.
The Microsoft team even designed an optical technology to test durability by simulating the aging of the material optically. Engineers are more than optimistic.