The University of Washington and Microsoft research team behind this latest experiment previously said DNA-based storage could fit the contents of an entire data centre into a sugar cube-sized unit ...an MIT startup called Catalog said it was designing a machine that could write a terabyte of data a day
It's cute. And if it ever comes to fruition, I'm sure that there will be applications. But allow me to point out:
. You can order sugar cube sized USB flash drives off the shelf today as well as 2TB units although to latter look to be closer to small coffee cup than sugar cube size.
. Existing storage technologies are moving forward steadily with regard to capacity and speed. By the time DNA storage actually is usable, semiconductor competitors will likely be much more compact, faster, and greater in capacity than today.
. DNA can develop defects -- cancer and mutations are the subject of huge amounts of medical research. Might want to include ECC in your DNA storage technology.
. DNA is pretty sturdy. It doesn't last forever. But a few decades/centuries/millennia is probably good enough for most purposes. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA
Biting the hand that feeds IT
