this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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SPhotonix 5D memory crystal: cold storage lasts 14B years (www.theregister.com)
submitted 4 days ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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After decades of research and development, humanity finally has a data storage medium that will outlast us.

The 5D Memory Crystal stores data by using tiny voxels – 3D pixels – in fused silica glass, etched by femtosecond laser pulses. These voxels possess "birefringence," meaning that their light refraction characteristics vary depending upon the polarization and direction of incoming light.

That difference in light orientation and strength can be read in conjunction with the voxel's location (x, y, z coordinates), allowing data to be encoded in five dimensional space.

And because the medium is silica crystal, similar to optical cable, it's highly durable. It's also capacious: The technology can store up to 360 TB of data on a 5-inch glass platter.

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[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A technology I've been eagerly anticipating for many, many years now. It still sounds like it's in the "Real Soon Now, honest!" Phase though:

In the next 18 months, the company hopes to have a field-deployable read device that customers can use to read archived data. But SPhotonix isn't presently targeting the consumer market. Kazansky estimates that the initial cost of the read device will be about $6,000 and the initial cost of the write device will be about $30,000.

[...]

"We need another three or four years of R&D to get it to the production and marketing standpoint," Kazansky said.

[,,,]

"We are not aiming to become a manufacturing company," said Kazansky. "We are a technology licensing company. We love the model of Arm Holdings. And to a certain extent, we love the model of Nvidia. So we are developing the enablement technology, and then we're going to be forming some form of a consortium, some form of a group of companies that will help us to bring this technology to market."

Which is where it's been for all of those many years I've been anticipating it. But who knows, perhaps this will be the company to finally start selling them. I'm fine with them being expensive at first, the cost will come down if they take off.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago

Initial cost of the read device will be about $6,000

That's not bad at all. It's something that basically every library could have. Imagine that level of distributed redundancy for hundreds of terrabytes worth of information, in a medium that essentially lasts forever.

Assuming it really is coming out at that price of course.