60,000 terabytes in a drop: scientists have created an “eternal flash drive” from DNA that will outlive humanity

Forget everything you knew about hard drives and SSDs. The US company Atlas Data Storage has just unveiled a device that sounds like science fiction: a data store based on synthetic DNA that can retain information for millennia.

Numbers that make your brain explode

Atlas Eon 100 are small capsules that look like shortened batteries. But inside there is a revolution:

• 60 petabytes (60,000 terabytes) of data in a volume of 1 liter
• Storage density is 1000 times higher than that of magnetic tape
• Reliability 99.99999999999%
• Storage life — millennia without rewriting and electricity
• Operating temperature — up to 40°C

For comparison: to store such a volume on conventional LTO-10 tapes, you will need a warehouse. And here it fits in the palm of your hand.

How it works

The technology translates binary code (ones and zeros) into a genetic “alphabet” of four letters: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. Essentially, your data is written in the same language as the instructions for creating a person.

What's especially cool is that storage does not require electricity. The dehydrated DNA in the capsule just sits there, waiting to be read. At least in 1000 years.

As rightly noted on Xrust, this solution is ideal for:

• Museum archives and cultural heritage
• Government documents
• Scientific databases
• Backups for AI models

The price has not yet been announced, but the technology is already ready for commercialization use. Has the future arrived?

Xrust 60,000 terabytes in a drop: scientists have created an “eternal flash drive” from DNA that will outlive humanity