Today a large number of companies are conducting research on creating new information carriers. Microsoft research group has gone the furthest in this area.

The usage of DNA to store a lot of data is the next phase that developers are about to bring to life. According to MIT Technology Review, it should happen in three years when they are going to launch a system that will allow to store data remotely on DNA carriers.

Nowadays, Microsoft cooperates with the company Twist Bioscience. This office specializes in manufacturing of synthetic DNA. Developers believe that their data carriers will be comparable in size with the copying technology Xerox of the 70s. Since the molecule has an extremely high record density, the usage of DNA as an information carrier is worthwhile. A representative of Semiconductor Research Corporation has declared: “Data on DNA can be recorded with very high density. We give due consideration to this issue because, for example, the entire history of cinema may be recorded on DNA and it will not go beyond the usual piece of sugar in size. The rapid growth of stored information volume is an essential issue and the usage of artificial DNA could solve this problem and there is no need to develop new methods for data storage.”

Moreover, researchers are going to speed up data recording on DNA. Developers intend to increase speeds up to 100 MB per second; today the speed is 400 bytes per second. Although prototypes of DNA information carriers are available, the high price represents an obstacle in spreading this technology for the population. According to Microsoft, if the value of data storage on DNA is reduced by at least 10000 times, the technology would get around to everyone.