Microsoft's new 10,000-year data storage medium: glass

Microsoft Research has developed Project Silica, a working archival storage system that writes data into small glass slabs using ultrafast femtosecond lasers. The medium achieves a density over 1 Gigabit per cubic millimeter and is designed to be thermally, chemically, and electromagnetically stable for millennia. Users can store critical long-term data, like map information for Microsoft Flight Simulator, in a format that requires no energy when not accessed.