One signal

Microsoft’s Project Silica stores data inside thin glass plates, with accelerated ageing tests suggesting it could remain readable for more than 10,000 years. It is an archival-storage idea, not a faster SSD in a rather unusual outfit.

A newer reader uses one camera instead of three or four, with a machine-learning model helping decode the laser-written marks. The article says Microsoft has also adapted the system to borosilicate glass, a cheaper material than the fused silica used in earlier versions. There are limits: the reported write speeds are around 8MB per second, and the data is designed to be immutable. That makes glass more interesting for long-term archives than files you plan to edit.

Discuss: Would you trust a storage format that lasts for millennia if it means the data cannot be rewritten?

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