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AtlasBase’s Thalia DNA-storage concept is reported to support capsules ranging from 1 TB to a future target of 50 PB, with 100 capsules in a cartridge. That implies a reported cartridge capacity of 100 TB to 5 EB, but it does not show that the 50 PB version exists as a product—or that Thalia is ready to replace magnetic tape. The Oct. 1, 2026 report gives no read/write speed, system price or public availability date.
What AtlasBase says Thalia is—and what the capacity figures mean
TechRadar Pro describes Thalia as a system that combines semiconductor controls with biochemical processes to encode digital data in synthetic DNA. Its report attributes the design details and capacity figures to AtlasBase; it does not provide a primary technical paper or independent validation. Read the TechRadar Pro report.
The reported chip has a 16 nm CMOS layer beneath a biological section, where electrical pulses control the addition of DNA bases. AtlasBase reportedly says the chip has 5.6 billion reaction sites—700 times the earlier DNA-synthesis technology reference point cited in the report. Those are company-reported specifications, not independently verified performance results.
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The capsules are described as metal containers holding dried, sealed synthetic DNA. A cartridge is designed to hold 100 capsules. Applying that count to the reported capacity endpoints gives the following arithmetic:
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| Configuration | Reported capacity | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| One capsule | 1 TB to 50 PB | Reported range; 50 PB is a roadmap maximum, not a demonstrated retail product. |
| One 100-capsule cartridge | 100 TB to 5 EB | Calculated by multiplying the reported capsule range by 100; the upper figure depends on reaching the 50 PB-per-capsule target. |
These figures describe storage density, not usable system capacity or throughput. The report does not specify how much capacity a complete installed system would provide after accounting for drives, handling, redundancy or other operational requirements.
Could DNA capsules displace magnetic tape?
They could become relevant to long-term archival storage, but the published capacity claims alone are not enough to establish a practical replacement. Tape is an incumbent archival medium; comparing it with Thalia requires system-level evidence on capacity, throughput, access latency, total cost, retention and operational maturity. The 2023 IEEE mass-data-storage roadmap identifies performance and cost as major adoption considerations for DNA storage, while noting that an archival medium need not match incumbent media’s write speed in every use case. It still needs a credible trade-off for the specific workload. See the IEEE roadmap.
Rank #2
For Thalia, the reported article does not give read or write speed, drive cost, consumables cost or an availability schedule. Without those figures, a buyer cannot calculate total cost of ownership, plan ingest and retrieval times, or determine whether the system fits a particular tape workflow. The appropriate conclusion is that tape displacement is a possibility, not an established product outcome.
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- Capacity concept: AtlasBase is reported to target high-density DNA capsules, with 50 PB per capsule as a roadmap ceiling.
- Speed: No Thalia read/write rate or access-latency figure is reported.
- Economics: No drive price, media price or system-level cost is reported.
- Availability: No firm public launch date is reported. The article mentions early access for selected organizations and technology users, which does not establish general retail availability.
- Maturity: The cited capacity and architecture remain company-reported claims rather than independently benchmarked commercial specifications.
How to interpret the longevity claim
AtlasBase claims sealed, dried DNA could remain usable for more than 1,000 years without continuous electricity, cooling or mechanical movement. TechRadar Pro does not report an independent lifetime test, so this should be read as a company claim rather than a verified service-life rating. Actual archival planning would also need evidence about storage conditions, data recovery, error correction and the system required to read the material.
Rank #3
DNA storage is not the same as computation on DNA
The report also describes AtlasBase’s interest in performing calculations on DNA molecules. It says accessing stored material for computation may take minutes, with total processing time depending on the application. That is a different activity from retrieving a file through conventional random-access storage, and the claim does not establish DNA as a general-purpose processor replacement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why other DNA-storage demonstrations do not answer Thalia’s questions
A 2025 Science Advances paper described a separate DNA cassette-tape prototype with automated addressing, depositing, recovery and replacement. Its reported closed-loop demonstration took 50 minutes. That result belongs to a research platform, not AtlasBase’s Thalia capsules; it cannot be used as a Thalia speed benchmark or evidence of its commercial readiness. Read the Science Advances paper.
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Likewise, historical field-wide cost estimates should not be mistaken for a current Thalia quote. A 2020 review in National Science Review gave an illustrative DNA-writing estimate of about $800 million per TB, based on an assumed cost of roughly $10−4 per base and one bit per base, compared with about $16 per TB for tape in its cited comparison. These are assumption-dependent figures from 2020, not present-day prices or AtlasBase-specific economics. Read the 2020 review.
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