In the era of information explosion, the demand for hard disk capacity has increased significantly, there are relevant reports expected next year, the global storage capacity of up to 16ZB or more. To address this issue, Microsoft Research Institute and the University of Washington, molecular information systems laboratory (MISL) cooperation is developing high density DNA string data storage technology. The researchers said: "we think the DNA as a storage medium to explore the related system design problem of ripe?."

Microsoft and University of Washington researchers pointed out that 1 cubic meters of DNA can store 1EB data, DNA string data storage technology has a half-life of more than 500 years. They can now use DNA data storage technology research on a storage device the size of a lump of sugar, which can accommodate 1EB data. This is set up in Oregon, Facebook in Plainview, two years ago, the entire cold storage capacity of super data center.

However, researchers at the University of Washington in an article said: "the current DNA storage technology is the biggest obstacle is the cost and efficiency of large-scale read and write DNA is relatively low." This also means that the DNA hard disk read and write process takes longer to deal with, but this does not meet the needs of the current user on the computer hard disk.

Microsoft hopes to combine this technology with the existing silicon technology hard disk in the future, to create a more secure and fast large capacity hard disk.