A 96-well plate containing around a kilobyte of information encoded in DNA.(Image credit: Atlas Data Storage)ShareShare by:
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Atlas Data Storage, a U.S. based biotech firm, has unveiled a synthetic DNA based storage system with the capability to accommodate 1,000 times more data than standard magnetic tape.
The product, known as Atlas Eon 100, asserts that it will preserve humankind’s “priceless archives” for millennia. These incorporate domestic photos, research findings, corporate documents, artistic creations and the original releases of virtual artworks, motion pictures, writings and tunes.
“This signifies the apex of in excess of ten years dedicated to product enhancement and pioneering across various sectors,” expressed Bill Banyai, Founder of Atlas Data Storage, within a declaration. “We are aiming to put forward novel approaches for enduring archiving, data safeguarding for AI frameworks, plus the protection of legacies and top-tier content.”
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At its core, all virtual information is simply a sequence of 1s and 0s inside a particular order. DNA is comparable because it is formed of specified sequences including the biochemical bases adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
DNA data storage functions through translating the binary code to such bases; for example, an encryption system might designate A as 00, C as 01, G as 10, and T as 11. After which, synthetic DNA can be made with the bases arranged within the matching order.
Regarding Atlas Eon 100, the DNA is then desiccated and kept as a powder inside 0.7-inch-tall (1.8 cm) strengthened steel receptacles. Rehydration occurs solely once it is necessary to sequence it and translate its bases back again to binary.
Graph depicting the DNA data preservation technique. More efficient than magnetic tape
Simply a quart (one liter) of this DNA based solution can easily hold 60 petabytes of information — equaling 10 billion songs or 12 million HD films. It makes Atlas Eon 100, that was released on Dec. 2, 1,000 times more data compact compared to magnetic tape.
With regards to context, approximately 15,500 miles (25,000 km) of 0.5-inch-wide (12.7 mm) LTO-10 tape, a standard high-volume storage method, would be required to hold that exact amount of information.
This particular storage density will make transporting considerable amounts of information simpler than with typical hard drives or tape spools. It’s likewise recognized that DNA keeps its composition for decades, rendering it a notably resilient medium for preserving information over extended phases.
Atlas Data Storage states that its product provides stability in an office setting with 99.99999999999% reliability, however the receptacles can deal with temps all the way to 104°F (40°C). On the contrary, magnetic tape declines in approximately a decade also with temp and humidity management.
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Visual media, such as CDs and DVDs, commonly deteriorate inside 30 years, while hard drives endure approximately 6 or 7 years before showing symptoms of damage. In fewer than 3 hours at 158°F (70 °C), a flash memory cell can ‘age’ the maximum amount it generally would in a month.
Atlas argues that its DNA storage service offers a simpler method to generate copies of its customers’ information than other media types do. Certainly, as soon as one strand gets encoded, digestive enzymes can produce over a billion duplicates in mere hours.
A fix for a data-dependent society?
Based on Atlas, society makes 280 PB of information each minute. It features its DNA based data storage as a potential treatment for the development of virtual information, which has been tremendously intensified by the generative artificial intelligence (AI) expansion.
Even so, the biotech confronts a crucial scaling issue: building encoded artificial DNA remains to be a relatively lengthy process in comparison with, for instance, saving a photograph on a pre existing hard drive. Twist Bioscience, Atlas’s former parent business from that it took on its DNA synthesis process, presently has an ordinary delay of between 2 and 8 business days on gene and oligo (short and long DNA strands) orders.
Atlas Eon 100 provides roughly 1,000 times better storage density than magnetic tape.
Furthermore, sequencing is broadly costly; it costs approximately $30 USD to read one gigabase of DNA, equaling roughly 250 GB of data. It also takes considerable time, with one more recent DNA preservation option revealing that it takes 25 minutes to recuperate merely a single file. Though, Atlas Data Storage insists that modern DNA sequencers are “enhancing throughput and reducing costs 1,000× faster than Moore’s Law.”
All the same, due to the timeframe needed to synthesize and sequence DNA, the DNA Data Storage Alliance mentioned in 2025 that they are not expecting DNA for use in archival data preservation at scale for one more three to five years.
Professor Thomas Heinis, a computer science professor at Imperial College London who investigates data storage centered around DNA, is doubtful due to the scarcity of real data that Atlas has issued about the functionality of Atlas Eon 100. He highlighted the reality that Catalog DNA, which made similar claims regarding its Shannon storage remedy, collapsed just months ago.
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“I have no doubt that they have created a powerful product, but it’s challenging to value without specific data,” he informed Live Science, including that the primary difficulty in marketing DNA preservation is synthesis, not sequencing.
“It sounds simple, but when the write/synthesis cost is not competitive, then it does not make sense to read/sequencing in a cost effective manner. It is not possible to read (cheaply) what one cannot manage to put in writing. At the moment, synthesis is way too costly while sequencing is drawing nearer to tape but remains more expensive. Despite strongly trusting DNA preservation, a great deal of technological advancement is necessary and I have not yet seen anyone with an economically practical choice.”
Fiona Jackson
Fiona Jackson is a freelance writer and editor mainly protecting science and systems. She has functioned as a reporter within the science department at MailOnline, and furthermore protected business tech information regarding TechRepublic, eWEEK, and TechHQ.
Fiona refined her skills composing human curiosity tales for universal news businesses at the press agency SWNS. She possesses a Master’s degree within Chemistry, an NCTJ Diploma and a cocker spaniel referred to as Sully, who she lives together with in Bristol, UK.
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