This new DNA storage system can fit 10 billion songs in a liter of liquid — but challenges remain for the unusual storage format
The new storage system could hold family photos, cultural artifacts and the master versions of digital artworks, movies, manuscripts and music for thousands of years, scientists say.
A 96-well plate containing about a kilobyte of DNA-encoded data. (Image credit: Atlas Data Storage)
The U.S. biotech company Atlas Data Storage has launched a synthetic DNA storage system capable of holding 1,000 times more data than traditional magnetic tape.
The product, called Atlas Eon 100, claims it will store humanity’s "irreplaceable archives" for thousands of years. These include family photos, scientific data, corporate records, cultural artifacts and the master versions of digital artworks, movies, manuscripts and music.
"This is the culmination of more than ten years of product development and innovation across multiple disciplines," Bill Banyai, Founder of Atlas Data Storage, said in a statement. “We intend to offer new solutions for long-term archiving, data preservation for AI models, and the safeguarding of heritage and high-value content."
Fundamentally, all digital data is just a series of 1s and 0s in a defined sequence. DNA is similar in that it is made up of defined sequences of the chemical bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
DNA data storage works by mapping the binary code to these bases; for example, an encoding scheme might assign A as 00, C as 01, G as 10, and T as 11. Artificial DNA can then be synthesized with the bases arranged in the corresponding order.
For Atlas Eon 100, the DNA is then dehydrated and stored as a powder in 0.7-inch-tall (1.8 cm) ruggedized steel capsules. It is rehydrated only when it needs to be sequenced and its bases translated back to binary.
Diagram showing the DNA data storage process. (Image credit: Atlas Data Storage)
More useful than magnetic tape
Just one quart (one liter) of the DNA solution can hold 60 petabytes of data — the equivalent of 10 billion songs or 12 million HD movies. This makes Atlas Eon 100, which was announced on Dec. 2, 1,000 times more storage-dense than magnetic tape.
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For context, about 15,500 miles (25,000 km) of 0.5-inch-wide (12.7 mm) LTO-10 tape, a standard high-capacity storage medium, would be needed to hold that same amount of data.
