Microsoft is working together with a U.S genetics startup called Twist Bioscience on a project to test the feasibility of creating a data storage system based on synthetic DNA.
A team of researchers from the University of Washington, together with researchers from Microsoft, published a new paper that argues the existing optical media and disk-based data storage systems are not keeping up with the exponential growth in demand. According to them, synthetic DNA has the potential to store one exabyte of data per cubic millimeter. This performance has the potential to miniaturize Facebook's cold-storage data center at dimensions smaller than a match head.
According to Twist Bioscience's website, Microsoft will purchase 10 million synthetic DNA molecules from the startup, in order to explore the possibility to use them for long-term mass storage. The two companies announced their joint venture project on Wednesday, April 27.
According to the publication ZDNet, the new DNA-based storage system can archive zettabyte-scale data. This would be by far the highest data density achieved up to date.
Another issue besides storage density of existing media is durability. Tape is good for up to 30 years and disks are good for three to five years, according to experts. For the DNA storage, researchers estimated a longevity of 2,000 years.
However, the main drawback of this storage technology is its slow retrieval time. Rather than minutes for tape, the retrieval times for DNA storage are in the tens of hours.
Twist Bioscience explained that it is using a silicon-based DNA synthesis platform in order to generate the molecules needed by Microsoft to create its new data storage system. Twist Bioscience CEO Emily Leproust commented that DNA is a very promising storage media because it offers a permanent storage format and a known shelf life of several thousand years.
Engadget reports that according to Doug Carmean from Microsoft Technology and Research, one of the authors of the paper, DNA data storage is only a concept at this stage and it is still years away from becoming a commercial reality. Carmean added that this initial test phase with Twist demonstrated that in the future it will be possible to substantially increase the durability and density of data storage.
