Keeping stuff
July 30th, 2009 by rbanks
‘Rosetta stone’ offers digital lifeline
“The process starts by etching bits and bytes by laser onto silicon wafers, the ultrapure materials from which computer chips are made. Crucially, the nature of these digital markings will be determined by a universal agreement on a common storage language that will hopefully last thousands of years. That is yet to come says Kuroda. These are stacked on top of one another to form a 10cm- (4in-)high disk, which is sealed between layers of another type of near-impregnable silicon to keep out oxygen and moisture. According to the professor, these are the two culprits that will render seemingly durable CDs and DVDs into unreadable ornaments in the next 30 to 100 years. ” 
BBC NEWS
