Microsoft and Warner Bros. have joint forces in successfully storing and retrieving the complete 1978 iconic movie, "Superman" on, believe it or not, a piece of glass, about the size of a beverage coaster or roughly 75 X 75 X 2 millimeters (mm) thick. This was the first evidence of concept test for a Microsoft research project called Project Silica, which utilizes recent discoveries in superfast artificial intelligence and laser optics to save and keep data in quartz glass.
An article TechSpot posted quoted Azure CTO Mark Russinovich saying, "storing the complete 'Superman' movie in a glass and being able to read it out successfully is a major milestone." For Microsoft, the said project centers on creating long-term storage technologies for the cloud system to address the growing needs and moving away from the conventional magnetic media, replacing it with a sturdier silica glass. This application of transforming digital data into tangible objects is what caught Warner Bros.' interest, which now presently uses reels of films in humidity—and temperature-controlled cold storage vaults for the preservation of the company's iconic and massive library of TV shows and movies.
The Search for Long-Term Storage is Over
Warner Bros. had been searching for a long-term storage solution to have its assets archived. This solution is the one that's offering to store the so-called 'cold' data. Cold data, on the other hand, are the archival data with potentially enormous value, or that businesses are obliged to retain but does not necessarily need to be accessed often. According to Vicky Colf, Warner Bros. CTO, it had always been the company's ideal of hope for what it believes would come into reality one day.
That is why, when the company discovered about Microsoft developing this glass-based innovation, Warner Bros. was among the first to show interest in proving it out. Unlike its present storage system that needs constant maintenance and monitoring because of their fragility, Microsoft's glass quartz used Project Silica, verified to be relatively durable after it went through the processes of baking, boiling, microwaving, baking, demagnetizing, and scourging through the use of steel wool.
Silica Glass for Storing Full Movies
While Microsoft's glass quartz is developed to store full movies, it is not intended for movie-watching or playing. The use of silica glass, rather than a film of reels to archive movies, is said to result in qualitative enhancements to data as well. Filmmakers and technology developers have it that using this medium-like silica glass allows the data to be deciphered and read back exactly the same as it came out of the camera, having the original pixels preserved the best possible way.
Unlike the pits and land developed on the optical discs' surface, Project Silica engages burning 'voxels' into a glass in an array of 3D to give way to a high-density storage, where a two-millimeter thick piece of glass can accommodate a hundred of layers of voxels that physically distort or bend the glass through pulses of laser.
