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AllimagesusedwithpermissionfromMicrosoftSlightlysmallerthana 3.5infloppydisk,thesesheets of glass are being
developed for data storage by Microsoft under the name Project Silica.
Capable of storing 75GB of data, including error-checking redundancy,
the sheets are written to with a laser, creating three-dimensional nanoscale
gratings and deformations at various depths and angles. These can then be
read back by shining polarised light through the glass. The glass can be
boiled, microwaved and baked in an oven without giving up its integrity.
Microsoft has been working with Warner Bros on the project, firstly to
encode the 1978 Superman movie onto a sheet, but mainly to drive down
the cost of long-term media storage. Warner Bros migrates its movie
catalogue to new media every three years to guard against failure. The
Silica sheets, which are only two millimetres thick but we’re assured are
very sturdy, could last for centuries as their structure is permanently
changed by the laser pulse.Project Silica
£Transparently high microsoft.com
10 |^ |^ March 2020