Hitachi targets 2015 for glass-based data storage that lasts 100 million years

When it comes to saving your data, how long is forever? Over at PC World, Jay Alabaster writes that Hitachi has developed a glass-based data storage medium so resilient that it could data for hundreds of millions of years, and says it may be able to bring it to market by 2015.

The company’s main research lab has developed a way to etch digital patterns into robust quartz glass with a laser at a data density that is better than compact discs, then read it using an optical microscope. The data is etched at four different layers in the glass using different focal points of the laser. “Initially this will be aimed at companies that have large amounts of important data to preserve, rather than individuals,” said Tomiko Kinoshita, a spokeswoman at Hitachi’s main research lab.

Hitachi said the new technology will be suitable for storing “historically important items such as cultural artifacts and public documents, as well as data that individuals want to leave for posterity.” Read the Full Story.