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."

Comments

That's what they said about CD-Rs

[Anonymous Coward]

.. 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.

Re:That's what they said about CD-Rs

[countertrolling]

Post this again in 100 years...

Yeah, I'll be here yelling DUPE!

Re:That's what they said about CD-Rs

[goombah99]

.. 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.

yes but this one comes with a money back gauretee if you can't read your data in 100 years.

Of course there won't be any software that can read the format. Even if it were unformatted data, We've gone from ebcdic to ascii to unicode is a very short time.

in 100 years logic will all be spintronic coupled quantum states locates in googles tritium powered headquarters on mars. You'll communicate with it by quantum entanglement of the implants added to your brain when you were an infant. The division between thought and recall will not be perceptible and you won't even be aware that information storage actually exists. the idea of possessing a physcial storage device will confuse people, so no one will actually know what it is.

Re:That's what they said about CD-Rs

[Anonymous Coward]

remind me never to watch Star Trek with you. Or play Mass Effect. Or anything.

Thanks, Mr. Buzzkillinton.

Re:That's what they said about CD-Rs

[ninjackn]

TFA article is wrong. If you look at sandisk's actual press release they say the 100 life span is "based on reliability data from internal, accelerated lifespan testing for cards stored at normal room temperature, with humidity and static protection".

Re:That's what they said about CD-Rs

[mirix]

True, but modern (E)EPROM programmers / readers will still read EPROM chips dating to at least the late 70's.

A SD card has a lot more in common with a ROM chip than it does with a 30 year old spinning disk, the way I see it. You call pull data off it using SPI interface, which pretty well every microcontroller made in the last decade has in hardware, and if not, you can bit-bang it half-drunk and blindfolded. All the information is available, I just can't see it being lost to the sands of time if you can bang up a reader for peanuts.

Guys have hooked these up to (home) routers, bitbanging the data off GPIOs that were originally relegated to flickering LEDs, and are able to use them as storage. (under linux)

Here is a pdf on the interface.
http://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/sdcard/pls/Simplified_Physical_Layer_Spec.pdf
Section 7 is what I'm on about. The speed is reduced in the simple SPI mode, but if the data is important, I suppose that is irrelevant.

100 years sounds good...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:100 years sounds good...

[miggyb]

I don't know. On the other hand, the industry has gotten a lot better at reusing connections and being backwards-compatible. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.1, I believe. Serially attached SCSI uses the same connection as SATA. We haven't moved beyond 24 pin motherboard power connectors for ages. The new SDXC standard still accepts regular SD cards. The examples go on and on.

Re:Wow...

[nacturation]

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.

Re:Most likely scenarios

[Vellmont]

Every time I hear one of these "but.. but but nobody will have the technology to READ these things in 100 years!" all I hear is "everyone will be stupid in the future".

Someone recently created a device to read some crazy obscure technology produced by Edison to record sound on film, and that wasn't even all that valuable.

The real deal is, if the data is important enough someone will maintain the technology to read it, or re-create it.

Re:The Egyptians did it first

[Kitkoan]

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.