New Research Promises 50TB on DVD-size Discs @ DailyTech

[werty316]

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Source (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3265)
[qute]Move aside Blu-ray and HD DVD - 50TB protein discs are coming

The next generation of high density storage media may come from the most unlikely of places. According to professor V Renugopalakrishnan of Harvard's Medical School in Boston, the research he and his team are working on promises storage capacities of up to 50TB (50,000GB) on a disc the same size as a conventional DVD (http://in.tech.yahoo.com/060708/139/65pz8.html?www.dailytech.com).[/quote]

[XJnine]

My main concerns would be how long the media will "live" and what kind of speed would we be looking at?

It's not going to be fun if it's the speed of a DVD and the little proteins start to do whatever it is proteins do when they're no good anymore and I lose 50TB of data because my A/C went out and a warm room caused them to die off or mutate. .

[werty316]

This certainly seems like a "don't hold your breath" technology. How many time do we here about new breakthroughs in this kind of technology that are actually manufactured? If it uses current DVD writing speeds expect the burn time to be very long.

[GIBSON]

My main concerns would be how long the media will "live" and what kind of speed would we be looking at?

It's not going to be fun if it's the speed of a DVD and the little proteins start to do whatever it is proteins do when they're no good anymore and I lose 50TB of data because my A/C went out and a warm room caused them to die off or mutate. .
They should last several years as the dna has been modified. (it has also been modified to support higher temperatures) Must say I like the idea, but I don't think it can replace the existing harddisk unless it can prove to have a higher write and read speed. I didn't see anything in the newsstory though which talks about the re-usability. Is this one write only, or does it work like a hdd?

[Kougar]

My main concerns would be how long the media will "live" and what kind of speed would we be looking at?

It's not going to be fun if it's the speed of a DVD and the little proteins start to do whatever it is proteins do when they're no good anymore and I lose 50TB of data because my A/C went out and a warm room caused them to die off or mutate. .

According to the article the media would rettain the data for "years instead of just hours", so that looks fine.

While the speeds may definitely be an issue, I'd be surprised if they were very slow. Interest in the technology would mostly evaporate if that was the case with all the other experimental methods for storing data on discs that are out there... I think the real problem will be from farming enough of these microbes to produce a disc full of the protein, unless they can synthesize it in the laboratory?

[ToXic_WaSTe]

This certainly seems like a "don't hold your breath" technology. How many time do we here about new breakthroughs in this kind of technology that are actually manufactured? If it uses current DVD writing speeds expect the burn time to be very long.

Always new tech, anyone know MILLIPEDE? , Now thats a tech i would invest in. Millipede http://www.zurich.ibm.com/st/storage/millipede.html.. With 1 TB pr square inch. Dont know if thats better then the DISC