Digital Data Storage for the Long Run

Even as more and more information goes digital, there is currently no sure-fire way to ensure that such data will be accessible in the future. But today, scientists are working on a solution. Pergamum uses individual building blocks consisting of a hard drive, a small, low-power processor similar to the kind used in an iPod, a flash memory card, and an Ethernet port. These units, called tomes, are connected using relatively inexpensive Ethernet switches. Each tome is like a minicomputer, but with very low power demands