Atlas Data Storage, a DNA-based storage tech startup, has announced its first commercial offering. Rather than releasing DNA storage hardware to the masses, the company has begun to offer Atlas Eon 100, which it claims to be the “world's first scalable DNA data storage offering.” Alongside the launch, there are some mighty big claims about how dense and how durable DNA storage can be, with quite a few magnetic tape comparisons thrown in.
“Atlas is proud to be the only company in the world delivering storage products based on DNA technology at scale,” said Bill Banyai, Founder of Atlas Data Storage. “This is the culmination of more than ten years of product development and innovation across multiple disciplines. We intend to offer new solutions for long-term archiving, data preservation for AI models, and the safeguarding of heritage and high-value content.”
It sounds pretty compelling, so let’s take a closer look at the claims and comparisons. On its website and in its PR, Atlas headlines its communications to call out the durability of DNA.
We’ve discussed DNA storage and this aspect of the technology before. Atlas’ specific claims for its Eon 100 product/service are that these capsules can “store [data] for millennia with no refresh needed,” and that they are stable to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
It compares these stats with magnetic tape, directly, which it says requires continuous refresh cycles every 7-10 years, and requires storage facilities with “specialized temperature and humidity controls.” The firm also insists that duplication is easier and faster with DNA.
Storage density is another feather in the DNA storage cap. Atlas specifically claims that its archive solution can store a colossal 60PB of data in 60 cubic inches. The illustration appears to show six trays of those pill-sized capsules. According to my math, 60 cubic inches is a smidgen under a liter, a single liter. Back to U.S. friendly units, and that’s a little bit larger than a quart. Please do your own conversions if you want that in hogsheads or firkins.
Whatever units you prefer, though, the 60PB Atlas Eon 100 storage rack is about 1,000 denser (thus smaller) than if LTO-10 tape were used to hold the same data.
Atlas was scheduled to demonstrate Eon 100 at the AIMA Conference in Baltimore yesterday. But the firm doesn’t sell Eon 100 directly through the web right now. Interested parties are asked to reach out via its web form. So we don’t know about pricing plans, for example.
Reading through the firm’s materials, it seems to leverage synthesized DNA from Twist Bioscience. We have heard of this company previously, due to its DNA storage collaborations with Microsoft.
DNA storage for PCs when?
It is exciting to hear about the commercialization of DNA storage gaining momentum, through service offerings like this. However, making this durable and dense bio-inspired data storage mainstream still looks a long way off. We can visualize laptops with DNA data capsule ports for vast local write-once read-many storage, but it could easily be a decade (or longer) before such high-tech sorcery becomes reality.
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