Nowadays, we are in the era of big data explosion. Observation data from large scientific devices, training data from large artificial intelligence models... all kinds of data are growing exponentially, and it is expected that 175zb of data will be generated globally in 2025.
What is this concept? The one we are most familiar with may be gb. 1gb data is approximately equivalent to 5 hours of mobile web browsing, and 1tb=1024gb, 1pb=1024tb, 1eb=1024pb, 1zb=1024eb.
This brings up a problem, how to store massive data?
Recently, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics") cooperated with the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and others to achieve the first super-resolution three-dimensional data storage of 1.6pb (1b=8b) on a disc in the world. , which is 10,000 times the capacity of ordinary Blu-ray discs. This is of great significance for our country to break through key core technologies in the field of information storage and achieve sustainable development of the digital economy. In the early morning of February 22, the relevant research results were published in the international academic journal "Nature".
This brings us to a thought: Can the optical disc, which has been "silent" for 20 years, usher in the next "spring" of industrialization?
[Electricity consumption of national data centers in one year accounts for about 3% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society]
In 2022, the electricity consumption of national data centers will reach 270 billion kilowatt hours, which is more than twice the cumulative power generation of the Three Gorges Power Station in the same period, accounting for 10% of the total electricity consumption in the country. Social electricity consumption is about 3%.
In fact, due to huge power consumption, my country's new data centers are generally built in cold western regions, while some data centers in the United States are even built on the seabed or in the Arctic. In
, the data with high access frequency is hot data, and the data with low access frequency is cold data. After a period of time, 80% of the data will become cold data. Semiconductors are suitable for storing hot data, but they are expensive and have a short lifespan; magnetic storage requires constant temperature and humidity, and often needs to be re-introduced. Optical storage has the characteristics of green energy saving and long-term storage, and is particularly suitable for the storage of cold data, but optical diffraction limits This is the bottleneck that this technology has been difficult to break through.
It is precisely because of the diffraction limit that the information points on the optical disc cannot be further reduced, making it difficult for the single disc capacity to exceed 500gb. Among the 125 most cutting-edge scientific issues in the world published by the international academic journal "Science" in 2021, the diffraction limit remains the primary problem in physics.
has made two important breakthroughs in related scientific explorations. Professor Stefan W. Herr of Germany developed stimulated radiation loss microscopy technology and won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2012, the team of Gu Min, an academician of the Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering and an academician of the Australian Academy of Science, achieved a laser direct writing lithography experiment with a minimum line width of 9 nanometers. However, the material was liquid and difficult to use for actual storage.
For more than a decade, the scientific community has been searching for materials that can perform dual-beam optical storage.
[What does the magic disc look like? Only 20 grams, looks transparent and thin]
"This matter is too difficult! Many research groups are unwilling to touch it. It is precisely because it is too difficult that a company that cooperated with it in the early days also withdrew its investment, and the research was almost unsustainable. ." Ruan Hao, a researcher at Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, told Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News reporter that fortunately, this forward-looking research was successfully promoted by the other corresponding author of the paper, Academician Gu Min. Supported by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the National Key Research and Development Program.
Researcher Ruan Hao is showing the CD. Photo by Huang Haihua
Zhao Miao, one of the first authors of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, said frankly that he was discouraged when he worked for three or four years without any results. Fortunately, his supervisor, researcher Ruan Hao, continued to encourage him, and he also received Professor Wen Jing of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (co-first author and one of the corresponding authors of the paper), Researcher Zhong Yuwu of the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Gan Zongsong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, etc. and other teachers have taught me everything, and I have also experienced it personally. Unreserved cooperation and sharing among various scientific research teams.
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics studies both optical reading and writing technology and storage materials, which is relatively rare in China. It is one of the most important information storage materials and technology research bases in my country.The research team used the world's first dual-beam controlled concentration-induced luminescence super-resolution optical storage technology to find a new luminescent storage material, thus breaking through the diffraction limit in both information writing and reading.
A CD is composed of multiple information points. The more information points, the greater the storage capacity. In the past, because the distance between information dots (track pitch) was limited by the diffraction limit, it was as much as 320 nanometers, and the size of the information dots was also as large as 150 nanometers, and only three layers could be written on a single side of an optical disc.
Today, in cooperation with researchers such as Professor Gu Min and Professor Wen Jing, foreign academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Photonic Chip Research Institute of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, the research team has "sharpened their sword for seven years" and achieved an information point size of 54 nanometers. Super-resolution data storage with a track pitch of 70 nanometers and completion of writing and recording of up to 100 layers. The equivalent capacity of a single optical disc is approximately 1.6pb. After accelerated aging testing, the optical disc media has a service life of more than 40 years, and the fluorescence contrast ratio is still as high as 20.5:1 after accelerated repeated reading. You should know that when the information contrast ratio of the optical disc reaches 3:1, it can be read repeatedly. What does a magical CD like
look like? Only 20 grams, looks transparent and thin.
is the first time in the world to realize ultra-large-capacity optical storage on the petabyte scale. It was highly praised by the reviewers of the paper: "Compared with other existing technologies, this technology provides the highest optical storage area density in terms of performance." The research results may lead to breakthroughs in archival data storage in data centers and solve the technical problems of large-capacity and energy-saving storage."
[Can this “breakthrough innovation” replicate the business legend?]
During the interview, Ruan Hao talked about a story: Nobel Prize winner Professor Hull later established a joint venture with the famous German optical company Leica, which promoted ultra The industrialization of resolving optical microscopes, with the most expensive equipment selling for 3 million euros, has been a great commercial success.
Looking at the relationship between human civilization and storage, the history of human civilization can be called the history of the development of information storage in human society. In the future, the integration of storage and calculation will be the trend.
Looking at the world, the semiconductor storage market will be about 139.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, the mechanical hard disk market will be about 18.3 billion U.S. dollars, and the tape storage market will be about 4.7 billion U.S. dollars. The storage market has a lot of room for development. Although the optical disk storage market has been "silent" for 20 years, can this research progress, which was hailed as a "breakthrough innovation" by the reviewer of the paper, be able to replicate Professor Hull's business legend?
is a disc that realizes super-resolution three-dimensional data storage, which is equivalent to 10,000 ordinary Blu-ray discs, which means that the cost can be greatly reduced; even if 100 layers are written, there is almost no signal attenuation, and the original bit error rate is only 0.33% , which means that it has the potential for practical use; after adding a protective layer in the future, the life of optical disc media that is now expected to be more than 40 years will be extended.
"When scientific research enters the 'deep water zone', it should focus on the long-term development of a certain field, so that there will be a breakthrough from 0 to 1. Next, we have to solve the problems from 1 to 10." Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics Science and Technology Comprehensive Director Yu Fei said. It is reported that the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics has applied for a technology patent, and the research team is considering promoting industrialization, and welcomes cooperation from technology or venture capital companies.
"Although we are the first in the world to complete the principle and experimental verification, there are still many problems to be solved on the road to industrialization in the future." Ruan Hao said, optimistically predicting that industrialization will be initially achieved in another five years.
