Research: DVD-like data carrier with 1 petabit memory

A new milestone has been reached in the data storage sector. Researchers have apparently succeeded in developing a data carrier with a size of 1 petabit. The highlight: it is just the size of a CD.

The renaissance of optical data storage media

There seemed to be a consensus on the storage market and in the scientific community that classic optical data storage media would soon be a thing of the past. However, a research team of scientists from Peking University and a science academy in Shanghai did not want this to be true. Instead, they diligently researched ways to expand the storage capacity of optical data carriers in the size of a CD or DVD. This experiment is now apparently bearing fruit. The researchers assume that their new method can create up to 1.6 petabits of storage space on the circular data carrier. For comparison: 1 petabit corresponds to 125 terabytes.

Only a DVD at first glance

The research team has now made its findings official. You can view this together with further information in the corresponding article in the science magazine nature. The article also describes what the data carrier is. To the uninitiated, it may appear to be a simple DVD or CD. However, a completely different technology is used here.

The main difference is the three-dimensional design. While a DVD only has one storage layer, the developed data carrier has over 1,000 layers. To make this possible, a new material had to be developed for production. The special molecules that make up the storage layers are extremely light-sensitive. This means that they can be read simultaneously, which is the equivalent of many DVDs in one.

Data carriers for data centers of the future?

The breakthrough that the researchers have achieved has one major advantage in particular. The same amount of memory can be stored in significantly less space. This could be particularly important in the construction of future data centers. At present, server systems are getting bigger and bigger and therefore consume a lot of resources. The long-lasting new disks could be a real game changer here. According to the scientists, it should also be possible to stack the data carriers. Corresponding arrays would then make gigantic storage sizes possible. However, as this is currently only an experimental setup, it will probably be a few years before this actually happens.