- SPhotonix’s 5D memory crystal on a five-inch glass disc can reliably store up to 360TB
- Data in 5D crystals remains stable at 190island Celsius indefinitely
- Current prototypes read data at about 30 MBps and write at 4 MBps
SPhotonix has launched its new 5D Memory Crystal, a storage medium designed for extreme longevity rather than everyday convenience.
The technology relies on fused silica glass etched with femtosecond lasers that encode information in microscopic structures that change light polarization.
These structures store data using three spatial coordinates along with orientation and intensity, forming a 5D encoding method.
5D data coding
The company claims stability even under high temperatures, with an estimated lifetime equivalent to the age of the universe.
Such claims rest on materials science rather than real-world operational history, which remains limited.
According to SPhotonix, a single 5-inch glass disk can store up to 360 TB.
SPhotonix describes its 5D memory crystal as a fused silica storage medium intended for extremely long storage periods.
Data is written using a femtosecond laser that forms nanoscale voxels whose position, orientation and intensity encode information across five dimensions.
At temperatures up to 190°C, the data is claimed to remain intact for 13.8 billion years, a figure linked to cosmological estimates rather than operational evidence.
Alternative long-term media include optical discs rated for 5 to 100 years, with M-DISC advertising a 1,000-year lifespan; however, no one alive today can confirm this claim.
Current prototypes of the 5D memory crystal reportedly achieve write speeds of approximately 4 MB/s and read speeds of approximately 30 MB/s.
Although this is below existing archive systems, SPhotonix has a roadmap that aims for sustained read and write speeds of 500 MBps within three to four years.
Such improvements would bring performance closer to tape-based archives, although the company has not demonstrated these speeds outside of controlled conditions.
Access latency expectations remain modest, and retrieval times of 10 seconds or more are considered acceptable.
SPhotonix frames its technology around cold data use cases and differentiates it from hot storage, which requires response times below 5ms, typically handled by SSD hardware.
Hot and cool levels operate between 20ms and one second and support applications such as streaming and document access.
The company cites projections that by 2028 global data generation could reach 394 trillion zettabytes annually, with 60 to 80% classified as cold data.
This framing supports its focus on data center integration over consumer cloud storage.
Early system price estimates place the writer at around $30,000 and the reader near $6,000. A field-deployable reader is expected in approximately 18 months.
The company has raised $4.5 million to date and is working to move the technology from Technology Readiness Level 5 to Technology Readiness Level 6.
This transition involves validation in relevant environments rather than laboratory testing alone, a step often associated with unforeseen technical limitations.
“Statistics show that between 60 and 80 percent of all data currently stored globally is classified as cold data,” said Ilya Kazansky, co-founder of SPhotonix.
“But because of the way humanity is evolving, because of all the budgets and AI and so on and so forth, historically a lot of companies have been like, ‘look, we’re just going to use hard drives or SSDs,’ which are expensive.”
“We believe in this [5D Memory Crystal] is the only way the industry will be able to scale data storage capacity given the growing demand,” he said.
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