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SanDisk WORM SD Card Can Store Data For 100 Years
CWmike writes "SanDisk has announced a 1GB Secure Digital card that can store data for 100 years, but can be written on only once. The WORM (write once, read many) card is 'tamper-proof' and data cannot be altered or deleted, SanDisk said in a statement. The card is designed for long-time preservation of crucial data like legal documents, medical files and forensic evidence, SanDisk said. SanDisk determined the media's 100-year data-retention lifespan based on internal tests conducted at normal room temperatures. The company said it is shipping the media in volume to the Japanese police force to archive images as an alternative to film. The company is working with a number of consumer electronics companies, including camera vendors, to support the media."
.. then they started to rot at 3-5 years, in my experience..
Post this again in 100 years, until then, it's just more bullshit marketing.
Until you realize that the last reader for it will be extinct in 20.
I'll buy one so I can put it in my time capsule along with my 8" floppy and punch cards.
Extrapolation is a dangerous and deceptive marketing strategy. If it is supposed to last 100 years, they should test it that long.
"write once, read many." you mean like a cdr? Big whoop. I'm holding out for the "write once, read once" variety like on "mission impossible" where devices melt down after playing the message...
card is 'tamper proof' and data cannot be altered or deleted, SanDisk said in a statement
To what value of highly funded and motivated attacker? They left that part out of the marketing hyperbole.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Good for 100 years or your first fire, flood, or other natural disaster that destroys the physical media.
Also, even if these do last for 100 years, it's a certainty that there won't be any hardware left that's capable of reading SD cards. Even if there's some piece of hardware in a museum, it won't be able to interface with existing technology. Given the rapid pace of the tech industry, anything beyond 25 years is just fodder for marketing.
A large portion of RIAA's and MPAA's distributors rely on people buying copy after copy of the same media as it gets damaged or lost.
Having a protected copy to hand down over 5 generations will SERIOUSLY cut into that profit margin.
Sony's bestselling cd is AC/DC "Back in Black", Imagine if dad has it on one of these sd's.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
You should consider logging in Mr. Coward.
So they state 100 years, based on tests at room temperature. Can we assume that the media will always be stored at room temperature in 100 year period? My experience generally shows this is wishful thinking, because air conditioning breaks down, heating fails, the room is not always dark, can have direct sunlight etc. Provide me something that can last a 100 years in conditions of, at least, 30 degree centigrade variation, and then it might be interesting. Certainly I won't be around to appreciate the end results, but for archival this is a requirement, IMHO.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Y'know..couldn't anything at all last for over one hundred years if you seal it away somewhere? Even a piece of paper cold last forever if you hid it in a vacuum chamber. :)
Wow, I submitted that like a week ago.
Your submission was undergoing testing for the last week at room temperature and the editors are now confident enough that it will be acceptable.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Since this technology is still transistor-based, wouldn't it be susceptible to damage from an electromagnetic pulse, either from a high-energy radio frequency device or (less likely, I hope) a nuclear weapon? EM radiation can travel much farther than the actual blast radius, leaving these cards physically intact, but electrically unusable. If true, then why not stick with optical media such as a DVD or CD, which is more durable and offers similarly complex tamper protection (not to mention a larger capacity at a lower price)?
This looks like a solution in search of a problem.
A large portion of RIAA's and MPAA's distributors rely on people buying copy after copy of the same media as it gets damaged or lost.
Or the shellac breaks in transit to the record store.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
...since the 'other news' today says that's all we have left [ http://www.physorg.com/news196489543.html ]...
Would it not be possible to specifically and intentionally (meaning specify in law or company policy that the funding would remain in place) plan to make sure that these were accessible and usable in 100 years. Archives and Archivist have already been doing this same thing for many years for other mediums. It would seem perfectly reasonable that if we as humans in current modern society are capable of data storage and retrieval from 100 years ago that it would be possible to do the same with new media for the next 100.
don't forget to proofread...
To me this is kind of a technology regression, unless one is only concerned with archiving. I used to work at a Title Company where scanned documents were stored on a WORM drive in the mid-90's. WORM as a technology in itself tends to err on the side of retention time vs. speed. Think about it, CD-R, DVD-R and every other -R is technically WORM media.
It's not as simple as stating paper. There is good and there is bad paper when it comes to longevity. Papyrus (dead sea scrolls) and lint paper are good, but paper used in newspapers is decaying. The yellowish color that it gets over a few years is an indication of it's decay. It can be stopped, but at a cost.
Even laser printed paper have problems - the printed text is only sticking to the surface of the paper. Ink penetrates the paper more and bleeds into the fibers. But some ink is better than other so the ordinary inkjet ink may not be a good choice anyway. A classic ink based on metal (E.g. iron) may be a choice since even though it may change over time the print will last.
Laser etching in a glass pane would probably be safe from decay but would be hard to store safely - and be expensive. At least it would probably last long enough to allow the world to forget that this civilization did exist.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
My first thought: WTF? Archival storage implementing DRM?
This thing is useless anyway since copyright terms now last longer than 100 years (depending on the age of the author).
Yes, all "SD cards" include CPRM; that technology never introduced into hard-disks because of a consumer backlash.
with a useless bit of trivia
Kodak- 100+ years
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/faqs/faq1632.shtml
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
At a glance I thought I was reading about Write Only Memory
No it's not. This is a high priced flash-based SD card with only 1GB of storage that requires you to write to each card. It's too small for video, too expensive for consumers, and not useful for media mass production.
Besides, if the content mass production industry wanted to use a transistor-based solution they'd just mass produce a much cheaper ROM cartridge. But they won't, since DVDs and Blu-Ray disks can be pressed for pennies.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
What is this, Byte Magazine in 1993?
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
We've seen a lot of discussion about "file and forget" digital storage methods. I haven't seen one that I'd trust over even a 10 year time period. The only practical solution is to periodically move your data over to the latest, long term storage medium. Make multiple copies each time, and store them in separate physical locations. I make sure to store all of my personal/financial/etc data along with family pictures and videos. I challenge you to go more than five years without wanting to watch your kids walk for the first time. This helps remind me when it's time to update.
Bad timing on your part, better luck next time.
funny how people feel they own a story because they found it on the internet, when it was a journalist who wrote the article.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
. . . we called them PROMs. If you have an original IBM PC, its BIOS was in PROM. I bet most PROMs still are readable.
A better comparison would be cavemen doing it first with cave paintings since many of those are still around and do tell a story at times. And those are much older and better preserved then papyrus.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
Glass would deform in that time scale...
I'm guessing your talking about the urban myth that glass can flow and melt? Sorry, but glass doesn't melt, it would hold it's form as long as it isn't shattered.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
Only 100 years?
Now if they had announced 1010 years then, yeah, that would have been interesting.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
"Your computer had a worm, but we've quarantined and destroyed it for you."
regards, IT security dep.
In the UK, Acts of Parliament are recorded on vellum.
Those temperature fluctuations are likely to increase over time as people's patience for retaining the data wanes. Engineering is rarely the culprit for something to be destroyed or torn down. The Astrodome in Houston was designed to last 200 years, but people got bored with it and the city built a new stadium. Now they just have sporadic rodeos there and people are always talking about tearing it down.
Over time, it's likely people will eventually stop caring about the data archived on these memory cards and throw them out of the temperature-controlled storage facility.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
actually, the term "glass" is used in thermodynamics for liquids that have been frozen too fast to transition into their solid states. A glass state is NOT a solid state. I took the respective course in french, so I know that they're also called "liquides frustres" (I don't have the patience to look this up in english).
Anyway, if you go to old churches and cathedrals, you will see that the glasses at the window are thicker towards the bottom, because the glass flowed over the years.
It is true that modern techniques generate much better glasses than a few hundred years ago, but they're still not in a solid state.
new sig
The same way all companies test these claims. They sell it to a bunch of people, then they see whether the proportion of claims for failed data within 100 years is less than the profit made on the devices. If it is, then the device was a success, regardless of the actual ability to retain data :)
Some medical devices used Magneto-Optical media for recording huge data examination.
But... builder for media and reader said it will stop this technology (too old).
So, how long will we have de devices to read all these media ?
How long will they produce the media to fill in still running devices ?
A study for archiving nuclear location informations conclued that the better solution was... paper (not common paper, but paper with just printed and eye readable informations).
-- Laurent Pointal
You apparently didn't bother to read the link in the parent. It specifically refutes your example and the method under which you claim it operates.
If you'd like to refute the link feel free, but please cite credentials at least as authoritative as C. Wu, Science News, Vol. 153, No. 22, May 30, 1998, p. 341 or Zanotto, E.D. 1998. Do cathedral glasses flow? American Journal of Physics 66(May):392, as the linked page does.
The WORM (write once, read many) card is 'tamper-proof' and data cannot be altered or deleted, ...
This is not for governments.
Somewhat unrelated but tar flows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment
indeed, I'm in stupid situation. Thank you for pointing out their source.
I tried to get the article, but I don't have access to it. Furthermore, I don't have access to a list of citing articles (and I can't find the American Journal of Physics on JSTOR). I was hoping that I could find a citing article that I could download and go through (I'm at the University, and I expected to find something usable).
Anyway, I'm giving up because I don't have the time. I can't really decide what to think, because I'm pretty confident my teacher was aware of the state of the art in this domain (and with such a title, this article couldn't have been unknown 4 years ago).
So my lesson for today is to listen first and argue later if I can.
new sig
Anybody remember the term "Water Proof?". You think we'd have learned a few things by now and be using "Tamper Resistant" instead of "Tamper Proof."
Interfaces to hardware last 3-5 years. Specifications for digital formats are not designed for long term as they do not include any ECC. 1 bit flip and you are dead. This is marketing hype geared to the IT unaware.
It's too small for video
Security camera video can be useful at 320x240, 15fps. Encode it at 256 kbps and fit a whole 8-hour day on a card.
Besides, if the content mass production industry wanted to use a transistor-based solution they'd just mass produce a much cheaper ROM cartridge.
How do you know DS, DSi, and 3DS games don't already use OTP tech similar to this for games expected to have a smaller print run?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Wrong. It is indeed an urban myth, read the damn link that GP posted!! The church example of thicker glass on the bottom is explained much more simply than by the glass slowly moving over time: Glass manufacturing wasn't sophisticated enough to make a flat piece of glass like it is today. If you were given a piece of glass with a thick side and a thin side, which side would you put on the bottom of the window? The thick side, of course, as that will offer better structural integrity.
The tl;dr version, if my memory serves me accurately:
The panes of glass which are thicker at one side are the side effect of the imprecise glass manufacturing skill of that time. The panes were usually installed thickest-side-down because that is the most sensible from an engineering point of view: center of mass as low as possible for the most stability. However, some examples have been found of glass that was installed upside-down (thickest side at the top, either by accident or by chance), refuting the notion that the thickness at the bottom is caused by the glass deforming slightly over time.
You could probably verify all that by looking online for an article that doesn’t require subscription to access but I’m to lazy to bother right now...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I know, it's pointless. Really, the data only has to last until it is trqansfered to another medium. Make sure redundant backups are made, and transfer them to new medium regularly, and things should be fine.
And to read them you need a windowx XP 32 bit driver. :P
An even easier experiment to refute the glass flowing hypothesis:
Is Roman glassware predating the cathedrals by as much as 1000 years deformed?
Wow, what a poor name choice for safe digital archiving.
I read the headline and thought "Oh no, more SD cards have been shipping with malicious code!"
The SD specification is worse than being undocumented: it's proprietary, and disclosed only under NDA. If the SD foundation ever goes bankrupt or gets bought by ${EVIL COMPANY}, the likelihood of obtaining a copy is rather small.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Will the readers or format survive 100 years? Answer: No.
Pardon me while I head down to Future Shop to pick up my new mechanical phonograph to read my phonograph cylinders I have hanging around the house...
Respectfully submit that those who are obsessed with the scientific laboratory definition of 'room temperature' are missing the meaning in this context:
It is *not* an ultra-cold storage device with expensive cooling requirements, useful only for the long-term archival needs of Deep Pockets. It is a room-temperature (in the common meaning of the phrase) storage device that is within reach of Shallow Pockets consumers.
I, for one, have been yearning to store my photos until I'm old and need to draw on them for happy memories. For my 90-year-old withered carcass, the loss of past photographs means the loss of memories. Huzzah for advancements in LT storage.
Yes, but transferring from medium to medium is a bit of a pain. It's a lot easier if you can just write it once and never worry about it again. These new SD cards will do that. They'll last for 100 years, which is all the time they'll need since the human race will be extinct in 100 years.
Big deal. Tons of vendors for industrial equipment still make PCI devices, and will continue to. PCIe-to-PCI bridge chips are cheap, and you can buy adaptors with these chips.
Just because something's no longer found in consumer equipment doesn't mean it's not being used any more.
With all these malicious worms which were coming on the solid state disks to call a SSD technology a "WORM"? Was not possible to select another name?
SanDisk has announced a 1GB Secure Digital card that can store data for 100 years, but can be written on only once. ...
Great - Now to find a foolproof way to...
Ensure that when you are burning an ISO, it really does write the disk image. Coz trust me if I find another disk with only a single ISO file, its going to be a sorry 100 years.
It's an urban myth that glass can melt? I'm pretty sure that most glass melts somewhere above 1500C.
..is if they invented a TIME MACHINE!! Alternatively they've been hiding their now-modern (previously hyper-advanced) computer in a cave and they've just now reached the 100 year mark. We need to start spelunking to find someone testing out a 500 Year SD Card...
Very informative. I'm usually pretty good about avoiding urban legend. TY
Well let's give it a hundred years and see if their claim is true. There'll be some red faces if it isn't. Oh wait, there won't everyone involved will be dead.