Researchers have come up with a new chip, which is said to be resistant to many chemicals. It can be exposed directly to high temperature flames and heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius for as long as two hours without degrading, claim the researchers.

Hitachi, while unveiling the chip, said it can easily survive natural calamities, such as tsunami. Kazuyoshi Torii, a researcher at Hitachi, explained: "The volume of data being created is exploding, but in terms of keeping it for later generations, we haven't necessarily improved since the days we inscribed things on stones."

The device makes use of a new method of storing digital information on slivers of quartz glass. This process enables the chip to endure extreme temperatures and hostile conditions without being damaged, for hundreds of millions of years. The device can turn out to be very useful for companies that have large amounts of important data to preserve, rather than individuals.

According to the company, "This new technique will help store historically important items such as cultural artifacts and public documents, as well as data that individuals want to leave for posterity." The company expects that it may take three more years to commercialise this technology. They are also considering a system wherein customers can send their data to Hitachi for encoding. Hitachi has succeeded at storing data 40MB per square inch, above the record for CDs, which is 35MB.