The Russian media recently reported that Russian scientists are developing a super-stable optical memory technology. The new disk developed under this technology is capable of storing information for one million years. A prototype of this “eternal” disk was created recently.
The new disk is made of quartz glass and data is written through femtosecond laser technology. The disc is expected to store up to 1 TB of data in the future. The developers’ tentative goal at present stage is 25GB, similar to the capacity of today’s mainstream disks available. The director of the Laser Nano Glass Laboratory at the Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, Ivan Glebov pointed out that the development goal of this “eternal disc” project is to create industry standards for the super-stable optical storage technology. This project intends to build a hardware and software integrated read/write system, to create an industrial model for the system, and to develop the viable production technology for its storage medium. At the current state, the three-year R&D plan regards state organizations, such as the Russian State Library, as the first users of this new technology.