AtlasBase’s Thalia is an emerging DNA archival-storage concept, not a demonstrated replacement for magnetic tape. TechRadar Pro reported a roadmap of up to 50 petabytes (PB) per capsule and a design for 100 capsules per cartridge—equivalent to a stated range of 100 terabytes (TB) to 5 exabytes (EB) per cartridge. The report gives no Thalia read/write speeds, system price or firm availability date, so buyers cannot yet compare its practical performance or total cost with tape.
What AtlasBase says Thalia is
In a report dated October 1, 2026, TechRadar Pro described Thalia as combining semiconductor controls with biochemical processes to encode digital information in synthetic DNA. The article says the system uses electrical pulses to control DNA-base addition, with a 16-nanometer CMOS layer beneath a biological section. These are details attributed to AtlasBase in secondary reporting; the cited report does not provide a primary technical paper or independent replication. TechRadar Pro’s report
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The same report attributes to AtlasBase a chip with 5.6 billion reaction sites, described as a 700-fold increase over an earlier DNA-synthesis technology reference point. Those figures are company claims relayed by the publication, not independently validated performance benchmarks.
How the 100 TB to 5 EB capacity figures fit together
TechRadar Pro reports a capacity range of 1 TB to 50 PB per capsule and a cartridge design that holds 100 capsules. Multiplying the reported capsule endpoints by 100 gives a stated cartridge range of 100 TB to 5 EB. The arithmetic reflects the reported design; it does not establish that every capacity has been demonstrated in a commercial product.
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- Lower reported endpoint: 1 TB per capsule, or 100 TB across 100 capsules.
- Roadmap ceiling: up to 50 PB per capsule, or 5 EB across 100 capsules. The 50 PB figure is a future target, not a demonstrated retail configuration.
“Bullet-like magazines” describes the physical form in the title, not a performance category. The report describes metal containers holding dried, sealed synthetic DNA; it does not establish a shipping product or standard cartridge compatibility.
Could DNA capsules displace tape?
They could become relevant to long-term archives if the capacity and retention claims translate into a usable, affordable system. But capacity alone does not show that Thalia can replace tape. A practical comparison also needs measured write and retrieval throughput, access latency, drive and media costs, operating requirements, interoperability, and evidence of product availability.
| Comparison point | What is reported for Thalia | What remains unknown |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 1 TB to 50 PB per capsule; 100 capsules per cartridge, according to TechRadar Pro’s account of AtlasBase claims. | Independent demonstration of the roadmap ceiling and commercially usable capacities. |
| Write and retrieval | No Thalia speed figures are given in the report. | System-level throughput, access latency, and how performance varies by workload. |
| Cost | No Thalia drive or system price is given. | Drive, media, consumables, operating, and total-cost figures needed for comparison with tape. |
| Retention | AtlasBase claims more than 1,000 years of usability for sealed, dried DNA without continuous power, cooling, or mechanical movement. | Independent lifetime evidence and the conditions needed to achieve that duration. |
| Availability | The report mentions early access for selected organizations and technology users. | A firm launch date, public purchasing route, and commercial support or interoperability details. |
The IEEE’s 2023 mass-data-storage roadmap considers DNA alongside tape and identifies cost and read/write performance as important barriers to adoption. It also recognizes that an archival medium need not match an incumbent’s speed in every use case; the relevant question is whether the system’s trade-offs work for a particular archive. IEEE mass-data-storage roadmap (2023)
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A 2020 review in National Science Review illustrates why older cost comparisons need careful context: using an assumed DNA-synthesis cost of roughly $10−4 per base and 1 bit per base, it estimated about $800 million per TB to write DNA, compared with about $16 per TB for tape in its cited comparison. These are historical, assumption-dependent estimates—not current prices and not AtlasBase quotes. National Science Review (2020)
What the longevity claim does—and does not—establish
AtlasBase claims that dried, sealed DNA could remain usable for more than 1,000 years without continuous electricity, cooling, or mechanical movement, according to TechRadar Pro. The report does not present an independent lifetime test. Treat the figure as a company claim, not a verified product-life guarantee or a direct comparison with a specified tape system.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.DNA computation is a separate idea from storage speed
TechRadar Pro also reports AtlasBase’s interest in calculations performed on DNA molecules. It says accessing stored material for computation may take minutes, with total processing time depending on the application. That is not a Thalia read/write benchmark or a conventional random-access response time; molecular computation is a distinct use of DNA and should not be read as a general-purpose processor replacement.
A separate 2025 Science Advances paper describes a compact DNA cassette-tape research prototype with automated addressing, data deposition, recovery, and replacement. Its reported closed-loop demonstration took 50 minutes. That result belongs to a different platform and does not establish Thalia’s performance or commercial readiness. Science Advances (2025)
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For now, the reported capacity roadmap is not enough to support a procurement decision. A serious tape-replacement case would need product-specific answers to the following:
- Measured write and retrieval throughput, plus access latency for representative archival workloads.
- Drive, media, consumable, and operating costs that allow a total-cost comparison.
- A confirmed availability schedule and the scope of any early-access program.
- Evidence behind retention claims, including storage conditions and independent testing.
- Operational details such as data recovery, interoperability, and support.
Until those figures are available, Thalia is best understood as a high-capacity archival-storage concept with ambitious company-reported targets—not a proven, purchasable substitute for tape.
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