Discussion: Will DNA Store Mass?
DNA storage is not yet ready to go to the masses, but some experts believe that the situation will change in the near future. More and more companies are beginning to deal with this issue.
Photo University of Michigan / Flickr / CC BY
According to the forecasts of Cambridge Consultants, in the near future the drives will no longer cope with the changing requirements for storing and working with growing data volumes in data centers. A number of IT industry experts are convinced that the solution is to develop alternative carriers.
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If we talk about recording density, Nature magazine estimates that all the data in the world can be recorded in DNA storage weighing up to one kilogram. As for the lifetime of such a drive, it can reach (according to various estimates) thousands or ten thousand years.
Another reason why experts consider DNA storage to be promising is the regularly decreasing cost of writing data to this carrier. If in 2002 the cost of writing one symbol per molecule was $ 10, by 2016 it was $ 0.05. If this trend continues in the next decade, the technology will begin a new niche in the data storage market. According to a rough estimate , the annual turnover of the DNA storage segment can reach hundreds of millions of dollars within the next ten years.
Prospects for the media attract large IT companies that are considering the possibility of its use in archival data warehouses. For example, Microsoft plans to launch DNA storage as early as 2020. It is noteworthy that the company's specialists have already managed to record 200 megabytes of data on artificial DNA helixes and achieve a write speed of 400 bytes per second. New developments will improve these indicators, although so far we have to talk about quite massive installations for storing data that resemble the size of old copiers from the 70s of the last century.
Another company that develops DNA repositories is called Catalog. This startup is working to create a modular laboratory, the size of a bus. It is immediately equipped with everything necessary for the synthesis of DNA molecules and their further storage. Installation plan to start selling in 2021.
Biotechnology engineers are also interested in technology. The potential in DNA storage is seen by Harvard professor George Church (George Church). He and his colleagues want to start creating a special “biological” chamber. It will not have electronic or mechanical components, and the photo or video will be stored directly in the DNA molecules.
Another project in this area is SGI-DNA. The team presented a DNA printer that is comparable in size to a regular office device. The system is already used to print molecules in order to conduct biological and medical research. But developers are planning to use the printer to encode information in DNA.
Photo University of Michigan / Flickr / CC BY
In the IT industry there are more cautious opinions about the new media. By some estimates , the mass distribution of technology will take several decades.
The first reason is the cost of writing. Although it has been decreasing in recent years, saving data into molecules is still expensive: in order to put a file of one megabyte into DNA, you will have to spend about eight thousand dollars.
The second reason is low data writing speed. Microsoft and its partners managed to reach 400 bytes per second. But according to the company's engineers, the bandwidth should be 100 MB / s for mass distribution of technology.
The third reason is potential IS problems. Researchers at the University of Washington have already shown that computer viruses can be stored in the DNA molecule anyway. In the future, this will give attackers the opportunity to inject malware into the network of specialized laboratories and compromise the repositories with personal data.
It’s too early to talk about the mass introduction of DNA repositories; therefore, a number of companies are developing alternative and improving existing technologies. One of them is magnetic tape. It has been used in data centers for archival data for several decades. Its service life reaches thirty years. Although this is incomparable with the durability of DNA, the tape overtakes hard drives and solid-state drives in storage time. The latter serve up to ten years. Another important advantage of the tape - the cost. The cost of storing a gigabyte of memory is only two cents.
For these reasons, large IT companies, in particular IBM, still use magnetic tape. According to forecasts of representatives of the IT giant, this carrier will be used in data centers at least until 2030.
The second alternative to DNA storage is nanostructures. For example, in 2016, engineers from the University of Delft created a plate of copper, on the surface of which a lattice of chlorine atoms lined up. Changing the location of the "holes" in the lattice, the authors coded the bits in the rows. Up to ten terabytes of data can be recorded on one square centimeter of the surface of such material.
Another technology related to nanostructures was presented by Chinese scientists in 2018. This is a film of titanium dioxide and silver, which is 80 times thinner than a human hair. Information in this case is stored in nanoparticles, which change color when exposed to a laser beam.
According to the creators of the technology, a piece of film measuring 10x10 centimeters can store a thousand times more data than a DVD. In this case, the recording speed on such a drive reaches gigabytes per second.
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Photo University of Michigan / Flickr / CC BY
Why are DNA repositories involved?
According to the forecasts of Cambridge Consultants, in the near future the drives will no longer cope with the changing requirements for storing and working with growing data volumes in data centers. A number of IT industry experts are convinced that the solution is to develop alternative carriers.
')
If we talk about recording density, Nature magazine estimates that all the data in the world can be recorded in DNA storage weighing up to one kilogram. As for the lifetime of such a drive, it can reach (according to various estimates) thousands or ten thousand years.
Another reason why experts consider DNA storage to be promising is the regularly decreasing cost of writing data to this carrier. If in 2002 the cost of writing one symbol per molecule was $ 10, by 2016 it was $ 0.05. If this trend continues in the next decade, the technology will begin a new niche in the data storage market. According to a rough estimate , the annual turnover of the DNA storage segment can reach hundreds of millions of dollars within the next ten years.
Who creates DNA storage
Prospects for the media attract large IT companies that are considering the possibility of its use in archival data warehouses. For example, Microsoft plans to launch DNA storage as early as 2020. It is noteworthy that the company's specialists have already managed to record 200 megabytes of data on artificial DNA helixes and achieve a write speed of 400 bytes per second. New developments will improve these indicators, although so far we have to talk about quite massive installations for storing data that resemble the size of old copiers from the 70s of the last century.
Another company that develops DNA repositories is called Catalog. This startup is working to create a modular laboratory, the size of a bus. It is immediately equipped with everything necessary for the synthesis of DNA molecules and their further storage. Installation plan to start selling in 2021.
Biotechnology engineers are also interested in technology. The potential in DNA storage is seen by Harvard professor George Church (George Church). He and his colleagues want to start creating a special “biological” chamber. It will not have electronic or mechanical components, and the photo or video will be stored directly in the DNA molecules.
Another project in this area is SGI-DNA. The team presented a DNA printer that is comparable in size to a regular office device. The system is already used to print molecules in order to conduct biological and medical research. But developers are planning to use the printer to encode information in DNA.
Photo University of Michigan / Flickr / CC BY
but on the other hand
In the IT industry there are more cautious opinions about the new media. By some estimates , the mass distribution of technology will take several decades.
The first reason is the cost of writing. Although it has been decreasing in recent years, saving data into molecules is still expensive: in order to put a file of one megabyte into DNA, you will have to spend about eight thousand dollars.
The second reason is low data writing speed. Microsoft and its partners managed to reach 400 bytes per second. But according to the company's engineers, the bandwidth should be 100 MB / s for mass distribution of technology.
The third reason is potential IS problems. Researchers at the University of Washington have already shown that computer viruses can be stored in the DNA molecule anyway. In the future, this will give attackers the opportunity to inject malware into the network of specialized laboratories and compromise the repositories with personal data.
Alternatives to DNA repositories
It’s too early to talk about the mass introduction of DNA repositories; therefore, a number of companies are developing alternative and improving existing technologies. One of them is magnetic tape. It has been used in data centers for archival data for several decades. Its service life reaches thirty years. Although this is incomparable with the durability of DNA, the tape overtakes hard drives and solid-state drives in storage time. The latter serve up to ten years. Another important advantage of the tape - the cost. The cost of storing a gigabyte of memory is only two cents.
For these reasons, large IT companies, in particular IBM, still use magnetic tape. According to forecasts of representatives of the IT giant, this carrier will be used in data centers at least until 2030.
The second alternative to DNA storage is nanostructures. For example, in 2016, engineers from the University of Delft created a plate of copper, on the surface of which a lattice of chlorine atoms lined up. Changing the location of the "holes" in the lattice, the authors coded the bits in the rows. Up to ten terabytes of data can be recorded on one square centimeter of the surface of such material.
Another technology related to nanostructures was presented by Chinese scientists in 2018. This is a film of titanium dioxide and silver, which is 80 times thinner than a human hair. Information in this case is stored in nanoparticles, which change color when exposed to a laser beam.
According to the creators of the technology, a piece of film measuring 10x10 centimeters can store a thousand times more data than a DVD. In this case, the recording speed on such a drive reaches gigabytes per second.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/444050/
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