Syylex AG from Villingen-Schwenningen (Germany) has developed a glass disc in the format of a DVD-ROM that is readily available to practically anyone: the data is stored as pits or grooves in the glass and then sealed airtight with a second glass plate. For this GlassMasterDisc the company was given the special award for medium-sized holding companies as part of the Baden-Württemberg state innovation competition.
The glass disc stores up to 4.7 GB of data and can be read by any DVD or Blu-ray player. However, the company does not offer recording equipment for purchase; instead, Syylex produces the storage media in their own cleanroom laboratory. The major target groups are archives, museums and public authorities.
The GlassMasterDisc is in no way the only approach to long-term archiving. The American company Milleniata, for example, offers a Blu-ray compatible M-DISC, for which burners are also available. These discs are made from various metals and other inorganic materials, store around 25 GB of data and should last for around 1000 years.