Cerabyte Ceramic Storage Poised To Usher In 'Yottabyte Era' (tomshardware.com) 43
Cerabyte, a technology startup pioneering ceramic nanolayer-based storage, claims it will usher in the "Yottabyte Era" and disrupt the $500 billion storage market in the process. Tom's Hardware reports: More specifically, its roadmaps sketch out CeraMemory cartridges (2025-30) storing between 10 PB and 100 PB, and its CeraTape (2030-35) with up to 1 EB capacity per tape. According to the startup, these new formats are poised to address density, performance, and access paradigms, as well as the cost and sustainability demands of datacenters. Cerabyte, a German storage startup, has published an abstract from its upcoming presentation at the 2023 Storage Developer Conference in Fremont, California (h/t Blocks and Files). Here, for the first time, it will detail how it will introduce CeraMemory with inorganic nanolayers, using 50-100 atoms thick ceramics to store information. Scaling ceramic data storage technology from 100nm to 3nm bit sizes will scale the corresponding data density from GB/cm2 to units measured in TB/cm2, reckons Cerabyte.
To record data to CeraMemory, Cerabyte says that a laser beam or particle beam structures data matrices similar to QR codes. Data reading can be done with equipment using high-resolution microscopic imaging techniques or electron beam microscopy. Initially, there will be no need for particle beams/electron microscopy, as those technologies will only be required later in the roadmaps at the highest densities. In its abstract from the 'Ceramic Nano Memory -- Data Storage for the Yottabyte Era' presentation, Cerabyte says its technology can read and write data at GB/s class speeds. These read/write technologies are "low power," according to the storage startup. Another seemingly excellent inherent property of ceramic storage is the touted media durability and longevity. On its website, Cerabyte says that its media can last "5,000+ years" and that the data stored can ensure through "a wide temperature range of -273C (-460F) to 300C (570F)." We have used quotes here, as those are extraordinary figures. Additionally, it is boasted that CeraMemory is resistant to corrosive, acidic, radioactive environments and EMP disruption.
To record data to CeraMemory, Cerabyte says that a laser beam or particle beam structures data matrices similar to QR codes. Data reading can be done with equipment using high-resolution microscopic imaging techniques or electron beam microscopy. Initially, there will be no need for particle beams/electron microscopy, as those technologies will only be required later in the roadmaps at the highest densities. In its abstract from the 'Ceramic Nano Memory -- Data Storage for the Yottabyte Era' presentation, Cerabyte says its technology can read and write data at GB/s class speeds. These read/write technologies are "low power," according to the storage startup. Another seemingly excellent inherent property of ceramic storage is the touted media durability and longevity. On its website, Cerabyte says that its media can last "5,000+ years" and that the data stored can ensure through "a wide temperature range of -273C (-460F) to 300C (570F)." We have used quotes here, as those are extraordinary figures. Additionally, it is boasted that CeraMemory is resistant to corrosive, acidic, radioactive environments and EMP disruption.
Will we have a paradigm shift to cermics (Score:1)
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I want to believe this isn't vaporware but IBM has claimed they were doing something similar in a lab years ago and nothing ever came of it.
Something is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Usually, when a company announces a tech and the release is 2 years away .. they are lying.
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Usually, when a company announces a tech and the release is 2 years away .. they are lying.
If the tech works, keep your mouth shut until you've got something ready to ship.
If the tech doesn't work, promote it to attract investors. This strategy worked for Elizabeth Holmes, at least for a while.
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That's pretty damn naive. Few people have the resources to bring a new product to full fruition on their own. This is why you see announcements like these. They are at the point where they need to attract investment money to move forward. "Keeping their mouths shut" does nothing but kill their product development. You can't take one example of a bad actor to declare the entire process bankrupt.
Write Once (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Write Once (Score:3)
p. 16 of the user guide:
"Eject your CeraWORM disk, cover it with the supplied CeraGLAZE. Next, place it in the USB-powered CeraKILN for six hours..."
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I want to see the 2KW power spec for USB-Z
USB-Z would be a connector spec.
You are probably looking for the USB PD v99.99 spec.
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Do we have to use special paints? My wife wants to decorate it with flowers and a hobbit-house motif...
Re:Write Once (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's big enough and fast enough, there's no need to ever delete anything, just write the data you need to update in a new location. I'm pretty sure the ssd in my 10 year old machine hasn't written anything even close to a yottabyte in it's lifetime.
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Good point, that too.
So many uses of the term (Score:3)
I’ve got a “roadmap” too. It involves me transcending this physical plane and becoming a being beyond human comprehension. Right about, wait for it, now. No, wait, now. Ok, now. Goddammit.
Roadmaps are as trustworthy as the company that wrote it. An Intel or TSMC roadmap? You can kinda, sorta, trust it. Some random startup? Yeah, it’s worth about as much as a guarantee on your crypto investment.
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It's ceramic, not concrete.
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You can't trust Intel roadmaps anymore.
Do they have hardware to show? (Score:2)
Re:No not really. (Score:4, Informative)
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My hard drives..
120MB (1991)
250MB (1994)
850MB (1996)
10GB (1999ish)
200GB (2003ish)
1T (2005ish)
2T (2009ish)
I haven't really bought new harddrives in the last ~12 years, except for a new machine which got a "brand new" 1T drive, 6 years ago. I yearn for PB drives. By now, we should have multi-PB drives, but tech has slowed down due to waiting for a tech shift. Shingle drives were 'the shit' 13 years ago, but alas, the market thought they sucked. I'm waiting for some really big ones.
Sure, SSD's are great fo
Re:No not really. (Score:5, Informative)
We will never ever see storage leap in a 10x size in our lifetimes
I am an Aspie and sometimes have difficulty recognizing humor.
So, is this supposed to be a joke? Or do you need someone to explain to you how profoundly stupid your statement is?
The storage on my computer has gone up a million-fold in my lifetime, from 5MB to 5TB, while the cost has fallen from $200/MB to $0.00002 per MB.
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>The storage on my computer has gone up a million-fold in my lifetime, from 5MB to 5TB
My first computer had 1KB of RAM + 8K of ROM. Very quickly a RAM expander pack was purchased and it got up to 64K.
Since the long term storage for that system was audio cassette, there was no point in having more than 64K of storage in that format. I believe a standard cassette would have topped out under 50K with the modulation standards of the day anyway.
At this very moment I'm sitting in a room that has something li
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I think what he meant is a 10x leap is a generation. like if right now, when the average user has about a few 100 GB to 1 TB of storage on average, suddenly a new product comes out with 10x the capacity and comparable speed/price (or better) and instantly make the competition obsolete
The product in the post,if real sounds more like a "CD-ROM" for the next decade. Where you really did have what seemed like excessive capacity at the time at very low cost, but with obvious shortcomings
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I think what he meant is a 10x leap is a generation
No, he clearly said "our lifetimes" which is already wrong by five orders of magnitude, and my life is far from over.
There is no vast conspiracy by "the man" to deprive honest hard working people of computer storage. That's absurd.
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CDs were more than a 10x jump over floppies. I guess if you count things like zip disks in between that's two ~10x jumps.
CDs->DVDs was about 10x. DVD to BlueRay was close.
Order of magnitude increases aren't all that uncommon.
Magic storage tech! (Score:2)
Now, where have I heard this before? Right, the "holographic storage" that came with much the same promises but never amounted to anything. I am sure this time will be different, right?
How many? (Score:2)
How many Bytes in a cerabyte?
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A crackpot is the fundamental unit of storage for all of these vaguely described transformational-nanopower-gigabandwidth-eternal Just Around the Corner storage technologies.
This flavor of vaporware has a history going back a long way. Here is an early 2000 example: MEMS-based storage [cmu.edu], and here's one from the mid 1970s [wikipedia.org]. There is no end in sight for this type of storage breakthrough as far as anyone can tell.
Clay tablets (Score:2)
Everything old is new again
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+1 Funny/Insightful
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Yabba Dabba Doo! Hitting Barney over the head with a tape reel didn't have quite the same feel.
Yotta! Sing it! (Score:1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It's great, just... (Score:2)
...don't drop it.
the miracle nanotechnology (Score:2)
So (Score:1)