Overview

• Researchers at SUSTech and Shanghai Jiao Tong reported the working system in Science Advances on September 12, detailing a compact cassette-style drive and tape.
• Digital files are encoded into synthetic DNA and deposited onto film divided by printed optical barcodes into hundreds of thousands of addressable partitions for targeted access.
• The lunchbox-sized drive automates write, read, delete, and rewrite operations using built-in liquid handling, reel motors, a microcontroller, and an optical scanner.
• In tests, the team stored a 156.6 KB image and recovered it in roughly two and a half hours—about a kilobyte per minute—with an optimization scenario projected at around 47 minutes.
• Capacity figures cited include a 36 PB prototype total and a theoretical ~362 PB per kilometer, though current effective density is about 74.7 GB per kilometer and speeds and costs keep the approach impractical for deployment.