Groundbreaking "5D memory crystal" storage could last until the end of the universe - but will it be able to hold all of your pet photos?

• SPhotonix’s 5D memory crystal on a five-inch glass disc can reliably store up to 360TB
• Data in 5D crystals remains stable at 190^o Celsius indefinitely
• Current prototypes read data at roughly 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, encoding information in microscopic structures that alter light polarization.

These structures store data using three spatial coordinates alongside orientation and intensity, forming a 5D encoding method.

5D data encoding

The company claims stability even under high temperatures, with an estimated lifespan matching the age of the universe.

Such claims rest on material science rather than real-world operational history, which remains limited.

According to SPhotonix, a single 5-inch glass disc can store up to 360 TB.

SPhotonix describes its 5D memory crystal as a fused silica storage medium intended for extremely long retention periods.

Data is written using a femtosecond laser, forming 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 tied 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 lifespan of 1,000 years; however, nobody alive today can verify this claim.

Current prototypes of the 5D memory crystal reportedly achieve write speeds of approximately 4 MB/s and read speeds of roughly 30 MB/s.

Though this is below existing archival 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 controlled conditions.

Access latency expectations remain modest, with retrieval times of 10 seconds or more considered acceptable.

SPhotonix frames its tech around cold data use cases, distinguishing it from hot storage that demands response times under 5ms, typically handled by SSD hardware.

Warm and cool tiers operate between 20 ms and one second, supporting 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 rather than consumer cloud storage.

Early system pricing estimates place the writer at approximately $30,000 and the reader near $6,000. A field deployable reader is expected in about 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 implies validation in relevant environments rather than laboratory testing alone, a step often associated with unforeseen engineering constraints.

"Statistics show that between 60 to 80 percent of all data which is currently stored globally is classed as cold data," said Ilya Kazansky, co-founder of SPhotonix.

"However, because of the way that humanity is developing, because of all of the budgets and AI and so on and so forth, a lot of businesses historically have been like, 'look, we are just going to use hard disk drives or SSDs,' which are expensive.”

"We believe this [5D Memory Crystal] is the only way that the industry is going to be able to scale the data storage capacity given the growing demand," he said.

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