Gadolinium Gallium Garnet

Gadolinium Gallium Garnet is an urban legend of an ultra dense digital storage medium, information about which can of course be exclusively accessed via the deep web.
The name was likely first coined in in 2011/2012 when the notorious deep web levels info graphic was created. In October 2012 a paste was createdhttp://pastebin.com/ktvMzynS which references the real substance Fuzhou Delicate Optics Inc.
While is a real substance (formula Gd3Ga5O12 ), it is mainly used for optics applications and as a fake diamond in jewelery. 
Hilariously, they were used in the 70s and early 80s in a form of computer memory called "", favored for its lack of moving parts, ability to function at extreme temperatures, and better performance than hard drives at the time. However, new hard disks ended up being both cheaper and more efficient and the invention of the flash drive made bubble memory entirely obsolete by the late 80s. So if anything, GGG would be objectively worse than modern forms of data storage if it was used today. 
The following is quoted from pastebin, including spelling errors:
==Paste==
The following is a theoretical data storage method that untilizes [sic] a synthetic crystal called "GGG" or "Gadolinium Gallium Garnet." It is manufactured as a diamond synthetic, and is derived from "Gadolinium Gallium Oxide." These are transparent crystalline solids with a high hardness and density. With 3 powerful lasers, you burn out a point within the crystal, and with a scanning device… read data from it. You can only read and write; you cannot delete or rewrite the data.
 
Gd3(GaO4)3 - Gadolinium Gallium Oxide
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number 12024-36-1
Gd3Ga2(GaO4)3 - Gadolinium Gallium Garnet
Hardness 6.5
Density 7.08 g/cm^3
Refraction Index 1.970 (+.060)
Gd - 471.75
Ga - 209.169
O - 191.9928
Total Molecular Weight of - 872.9118 atm
1 Mol = 872.9118 grams of crystal at a density of 7.08g/cm yields appoximately [sic] 123.29cm^3
cubic root of 123.29cm^3 = 4.977095
A 5cm x 5cm x 5cm cube... that works out JUST fine.
Data storage by a perfect cube is measured at:
 n^3
 -------
 (2n-1)^3
 n = mol h/l/w bits total molecules ratio of bits to molecules
 1 1 27 3.7037037037
 2 8 125 6.4000000000
 3 27 343 7.8717201166
 4 64 729 8.7791495199
 5 125 1331 9.3914350113
 6 216 2197 9.8315885298
 7 343 3375 10.1629629630
 8 512 4913 10.4213311622
 9 729 6859 10.6283714827
 10 1000 9261 10.7979699816
 11 1331 12167 10.9394263171
 12 1728 15625 11.0592000000
 13 2197 19683 11.1619163745
 14 2744 24389 11.2509737997
 15 3375 29791 11.3289248431
 16 4096 35937 11.3977237944
 17 4913 42875 11.4588921283
 18 5832 50653 11.5136319665
 19 6859 59319 11.5629056457
 10000 1000000000000 8001200060001 12.4981251875
 42210000 7.52E+022 6.02E+023 12.4999995558
 
This shows that roughly 12.5% or 1/8 of the molecules can be stored as bits.
7.52E+022 bits to exabytes = 8153.20034 exabytes
exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes
 
This is equal to saving 192 million copies of every book every written or about 16 Internets.
Google processes 8 exabytes of data every year.
 
As of March 2010, the global monthly Internet traffic is estimated to be 21 exabytes.
As of May 2009, the size of the World's total Digital content has been roughly estimated to be 500 billion gigabytes, or 500 exabytes.
 
According to an IDC paper sponsored by EMC Corporation, 161 exabytes of data were created in 2006, "3 million times the amount of information contained in all the books ever written," with the number expected to hit 988 exabytes in 2010.
 
According to CSIRO, in the next decade, astronomers expect to be processing 10 petabytes of data every hour from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. The array is thus expected to generate approximately one exabyte every four days of operation. According to IBM, the new SKA telescope initiative will generate over an exabyte of data every day. IBM is designing hardware to process this information.
 
According to the June 2009 update of the Cisco Visual Networking Index IP traffic forecast, by 2013, annual global IP traffic will reach two-thirds of a zettabyte or 667 exabytes. Internet video will generate over 18 exabytes per month in 2013. Global mobile data traffic will grow at a CAGR of 131 percent between 2008 and 2013, reaching over two exabytes per month by 2013.
According to the Digital Britain Report 494 Exabytes of data was transferred across the globe on 15 June 2009.
 
According to an IDC paper sponsored by EMC Corporation, 161 exabytes of data were created in 2006, "3 million times the amount of information contained in all the books ever written," with the number expected to hit 988 exabytes in 2010.
 
Several filesystems use disk formats which support theoretical volume sizes of several exabytes, including Btrfs, XFS, ZFS, exFAT and NTFS.
 
The ext4 file system format supports volumes up to 1 exabyte in size, although the userspace tools cannot yet administer such filesystems.
 
One exabyte is the equivalent of about 50,000 years of DVD quality video.
 
This same principal can be applied to glass, though it would take far more precise equipment.
==References==
Category:Crystals
Category:Deep web
Category:Technology