Your body is a hard drive? DNA storage resistance and long [Full text]

Technology Dynamics 1 gram of DNA storage 455EB (1 EB = 1024 PB = 1048576 TB) data can be maintained at room temperature for more than 2000 years; replication of 20MB of data takes approximately one day; each base is 0.04 cents; DNA is stored in The era of big data seems to be suitable as a cold storage medium, but is it really that simple? I don't think so.

Microsoft and the University of Washington’s Molecular Information System Laboratory (MISL) have successfully recorded 200.2 MB of data on DNA. According to academic papers published by the two sides in the "Nature" magazine, this storage method has many advantages, such as storage for up to a thousand years, but it also has uncertainties and factors that do not have the following factors:

Technical difficulty is high

DNA storage does not actually use humans or animals as storage media. Instead, it uses binary bases (0, 1, 2, and 3) in the bases of G, T, A, and C4 in DNA to map binary files to DNA through coding. The A, T, G, and C base sequences inside, and then the long-chain DNA formed by artificial synthesis technology to achieve data storage.

Microsoft is optimistic about DNA storage

So the data is written as artificial synthetic DNA, data reading is DNA sequencing, data copying is DNA replication. In theory, 1 gram of DNA can store 455 EB of data.

At present, this technology is still in the experimental exploration stage. For example, Microsoft and the University of Washington's Molecular Information Systems Laboratory have successfully stored 200.2 MB of data on DNA, which cost about $800,000.

High cost is scary

200MB of data storage needs to cost 800,000 US dollars, at present this price is obviously still not have the characteristics of civilians. However, many technology companies still consider this a worthwhile direction.

Although the cost is high, the advantages of DNA storage are also very obvious: the storage time of DNA is also very long. Under dry and cold conditions, it can be maintained for more than 1 million years, and it can be maintained at room temperature for more than 2000 years. The energy consumption for ambient temperature preservation is very low. electricity. In other words, the initial investment is high, but the storage capacity is large, and the energy consumption and operation and maintenance costs in the storage process are not high.

According to the current DNA base price, the price of 0.04 cents per base is still prohibitive.

Page 2: random read and write difficulties

Random read and write difficulties

In addition to data storage, any storage technology needs more important issues such as storage transmission methods and error correction capabilities. This is also an important reason why the author believes that the future of DNA storage is still uncertain.

Replace 0 and 1 with DNA

At present, the read/write speed of general mechanical hard disks is generally 7200 rpm (90-100 mb per second), and the speed of SSDs is faster, reaching 300-500 megabytes per second. In contrast, the synthesis rate of DNA is generally 1,000 bases per second, which means that the replication of 20 MB of data takes approximately one day. Not only that, the current state of the art can only synthesize very small data in the laboratory, and large-scale base synthesis needs to be realized in specialized gene synthesis service companies.

Even if the storage/copy (synthetic) problem is solved, how can you read it at random when reading? Judging from the current technology, Microsoft and the University of Washington used the "Primer" approach to mark each file's address in the DNA sequence. When reading, it can quickly jump to a certain location for reading. However, this positioning is still not accurate enough and it is inefficient.

Conclusion

Because of these features, DNA storage is obviously more suitable for cold storage applications. However, due to the above two difficult issues, I believe that the future of DNA storage is not clear enough. It is also worth noting that if DNA storage is used on a large scale, individuals are free to carry large amounts of stored data and be free to act on their own. Everyone is a "cloud drive," and this technology can be used in military and other fields. It will bring about disruptive changes.