this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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Indestructible quartz crystal can store 360TB of data for billions of years (www.techspot.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK successfully stored the entirety of the human genome sequence onto an indestructible 5D optical memory crystal no bigger than a penny. The indestructibility claims are no joke since the discs can withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C, cosmic radiation, and even direct impact forces of 10 tons per cm2.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage

The "5-dimensional" descriptor is only a marketing term, since the device has 3 physical dimensions and no exotic higher dimensional properties. The fractal/holographic nature of its data storage is also purely 3-dimensional. The size, orientation and three-dimensional position of the nanostructures comprise the so-called five dimensions.

☹️

/edit

Further down in the article it is a little clearer...

In this case, the 5 dimensions inside of the discs are the size and orientation in relation to the 3-dimensional position of the nanostructures. The concept of being 5-dimensional means that one disc has several different images depending on the angle that one views it from, and the magnification of the microscope used to view it.

The website even lists a little more...

In order to increase the data capacity of optical storage, there is the potential of storing more than one bit in a single voxel by implementing multiplex technology. The recently developed 5D optical storage technique uses birefringence as an extra degree of freedom – the property of a medium whereby its refractive index varies depending on the polarization and direction of incident light. Birefringence generated by the orientation and size of optical nano-gratings offers two extra dimensions, providing much higher storage capacities.

So, it's supposedly three dimensions of position plus angle and (maybe?) polarity. So, it seems to be more than just a marketing gimmick, but I can't find any information about the resolution of those additional two parameters, so I can't tell if a single voxel stores two bits or two terabits.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago

It sounds kinda like the "trick" on the internet for fitting more notes onto a note-sheet for an exam. You're still using the same physical space to store information, but you're introducing a new degree of freedom that allows you to increase storage density.

[–] Grass 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It makes me think about how the 2.5d glass screen protectors with bevelled edge eventually became 3d for curved screen phones, then 5d, then 9d, and I've seen some silly 1000d and 9999d because clearly none of these marketing idiots remember what the d numbers even referred to in the first place. They used to explain what each d gave you and now its just a number and higher is better.

1000009962

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

dd glass. Unbreakable for your bra, or for copying blocks of data. Or both.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seems more like 5 axis than 5 dimensions.
Sounds like a slice through the crystal that can be moved up and down and rotated through 2 angles (eg roll and pitch)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

5 axis and 5 dimensions are essentially the same thing, right? A 2D graph has 2 axes, a 3D one has three, 4D graph can be shown with colour representing the 4th axis, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Yeh, axis was the wrong term. I was thinking degrees of freedom.
However, I misunderstood the concept.

The extra dimensions are basically optical manipulation, like the other comment says with the red and blue lenses.

I thought it was more about the crystals attitude. So in addition to x, y and z, you also have alpha, beta, gamma.
Which would be 3 dimensions/axis with 6 degrees of freedom