Microsoft began to record music on quartz plates

In the event of a global catastrophe, people have longbegan to create vaults with seeds of various plant species, one of the largest is located in Norway - the "Doomsday Vault" today contains 1,145,693 seeds from all over the world. Microsoft decided to develop the current idea with the assistance of other partners. In the event of a global doomsday, a collection of world musical works, the Global Music Vault, will also be created here.

For recording huge volumes of Microsoft musicintends to use the technology developed under the Project Silica initiative, the company is starting test recordings on quartz wafers. According to a press release posted on the project's website, although magnetic film is still considered the preferred medium for archiving information, it is not as reliable as quartz media.

It is emphasized that such plates can bebake, boil, scratch, pollute, expose to electromagnetic radiation and other factors without losing the information recorded on the glass. In addition, the location in Norway is considered one of the safest on the planet due to the geological features and moderate geopolitical activity of the country itself.

The size of each quartz plate is 75×75mm,thickness - 2 mm. It can store up to 100 GB. Data is added using lasers that form a three-dimensional mini-relief in the plate. To obtain information, it is necessary to use polarized light, and a machine algorithm will help decipher the signal. According to the organizers of the project, the data can be stored for "many thousands of years." In particular, in 2019, Microsoft has already successfully encoded and decoded the original Warner Brothers version of Superman.

According to the Global Music Vault, the vault will containmusic from all over the world is added - from the UK to Sweden, Africa and New Zealand. As a result, the organizers intend to add tens of petabytes annually. The first "contribution" to the repository is expected to be made in 2023. More information is published on the project website.