As data storage needs have grown over the years, so has the development of new technologies, such as Microsoft’s Project Silica and diamond optical discs, which can make it easier to store large amounts of data for long periods. As of now, we rely on magnetic tapes and hard disk drives for long-term data storage, with the latter more common in data centers and enterprises. However, researchers have had a breakthrough in DNA-based storage media that has the potential to change the way we store data.
Scientists have long known that DNA is capable of storing a mind-boggling amount of data (about 455 exabytes, or 455 million terabytes, per gram), and one of the reasons for this is its extreme density. So, there have been numerous attempts at making viable solutions using DNA as the storage medium. However, none have been quite as successful in both data storage and retrieval as the latest attempt by the researchers at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in China.
According to a study published in Science Advances, the researchers have created a DNA cassette tape, which resembles the audio cassette tapes prevalent in the 1980s and early 1990s. It can potentially hold up to 362 petabytes or 362,000 terabytes of data, which is more than enough to store your entire Steam library and any other content libraries you might have.
What is a DNA cassette tape?
The DNA cassette tape created by SUSTech and SJTU researchers is an innovative data storage solution that uses synthetic DNA to store data on a physical tape, much like an audio cassette does with magnetic tape. The biggest difference between this cassette and earlier attempts at making a DNA-based data storage medium is the inclusion of millions of microscopic barcodes on the tape. These serve as addresses, helping with easy and fast retrieval of relevant data when it’s time to access the stored information.
In other DNA-based media, the system had to read through all the stored data to find the one specific file or folder, which made data retrieval an incredibly slow task. This had remained a bottleneck in the creation of viable DNA-based storage media. However, the SUSTech team has solved this issue with barcodes.
The tape in this DNA cassette is also sealed in a special crystalline coating that protects it from environmental damage and extends its lifespan to thousands of years in temperature-controlled conditions. However, even at room temperature, it’s said to last up to 300 years without deterioration, making it excellent for long-term data storage.
The DNA storage future is still far away
Although the SUSTech team has managed to build something radical, a future where DNA storage media use is commonplace, even at data centers, is still some time away. One of the reasons for this is that the DNA cassette tape created by SUSTech and SJTU researchers is currently very slow and doesn’t reach its data capacity potential.
The team wrote only 156.6 kilobytes of data on the tape as a proof of concept, and it took them 150 minutes to complete the full read process, which is incredibly slow by current standards. However, the team notes that retrieval time could be reduced to 47 minutes, but even that is woefully slow.
Similarly, based on their storage of 156.6 kilobytes of data on the DNA cassette, the researchers estimate they can store up to 74.7 GB of actual data per kilometer of the tape right now. However, the theoretical maximum capacity of the tape can go up to 362 petabytes per kilometer.
The researchers use per-kilometer data capacity to put it into context with an LTO-10 tape, a magnetic tape data storage format currently in use, which also has a length of around a kilometer. However, LTO-10 tape can store up to 30 TB of uncompressed, or 45 TB of compressed, data. So, at the current level, the DNA cassette tape is also inferior to LTO-10 in terms of capacity.
