- Chinese scientists design DNA tape that could store data for centuries
- Prototype demonstrated with a 156 KB flashlight image but writing is still slow and expensive
- The study suggests that the maximum theoretical capacity is equivalent to around 80 million DVD per kilometer
Chinese scientists, led by Professor Xingyu Jiang from the University of Science and Technology of Southern China in Shenzhen, are proposing a DNA cassette tape that stores large amounts of data in a compact format.
The objective is a lasting and laptop to file data that could last centuries.
In an article published in Scientific advancesThe equipment proposes a polyester nylon tape stamped with barcodes that create 5.45×10^5 addressable partitions for 1000 meters. A reader could locate up to 1570 partitions per second.
It is not exactly fast
The data would be written as synthetic DNA threads deposited in each partition, and then sealed under a protective zeolithic imidazolate frame layer.
To read files, the chosen partition is soaked in sodium hydroxide and the sequenced solution. The coating could be deleted and re -applied to the update files, the researchers say.
A prototype unit manages direction, recovery, elimination, redeeming and reincapsulation in a closed circuit.
In a demonstration, the system stored 156.6kb and rebuilt an image of flashlight.
The full sequence of three recoveries and a redeeming took about 150 minutes.
The team says that a lot of certain steps uniformly in the partition could reduce that to approximately 47 minutes, but it is still not exactly fast.
The real load is equivalent to approximately 74.7 GB per km today, the authors say.
Its extrapolation suggests a theoretical roof about 362pb per km, which is approximately the equivalent of 80 million DVDs.
Using the measure measured, a length tape of an LTO-9 reel would contain approximately 77 GB, well below the native 18TB capacity of LTO-9, but the theoretical roof would imply approximately 375PB for a similar length.
Writing speeds remain the big problem, since DNA synthesis is slow and expensive, so filling even a one -kilometer fraction would take the current rates.
The partitions of the tape admit many and recover many operations, so the files can be recovered repeatedly, erase and replace.
That brings the device closer to an administered storage system that a shooting file.
The protective layer hardens the environment against heat and enzymes and accelerated aging modeling suggests about 345 years of retention at room temperature and much longer in colder environments.
The concept could act as a useful bridge between the cold file and warm access.
Chemistry limits performance today, but scientists are confident that the mechanical format could work with future and faster DNA writing methods.
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