Hitachi has developed a new quartz glass storage method, which it claims can store information for hundreds of millions of years.
The storage unit comprises a sliver of glass 2cm square and 2mm thick that can store 40MB of data per square inch and the information can written in binary format through lasering dots on the glass in four layers and can be read with an normal optical microscope.
According to Hitachi, more layers can also be added to the unit to increase the storage capacity.
Hitachi researcher Kazuyoshi Torii was quoted by AFP as saying that the volume of data being created every day is exploding, but in terms of keeping it for later generations, they haven’t necessarily improved since the days of inscribing things on stones.
"The possibility of losing information may actually have increased," Torii said.
"As you must have experienced, there is the problem that you cannot retrieve information and data you managed to collect."
Hitachi claims that the glass will retain its data even at 1,000° Celsius for over two hours, and is resistant to radiation, water, and various chemicals.
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The firm has not yet decided to deploy the chip practically while will initially start with storage services for government agencies, museums and religious organisations.
The material used in the storage system currently has four layers of dots, which can hold 40 megabytes of data per square inch.
