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IBM's Nanotech Drive Research
cfanjul writes: "IBM seems to be helping nanotech's slow march to end products with
magnetic particles that can be made into a storage device with ten times the density of some of today's drives."
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The biggest problem with portable devices (like MP3 players) is that storage is so expensive, because leaving a conventional HDD in a cold car can demagnitize and permanently damage it.
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: remove whitespace to e-mail me
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
*ROTFLMFAO* Sorry I wasted my moderator points ealier...someone mod that up PLEASE *LMFAO*
sorry
...and for everyone whining about the nytimes.com login.
http://pa rtners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/biztech/arti cles/17blue.html
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
But just a reminder that IBM is a major producer of hard drive components, specificly the heads (which I would imagine are the hardest things to make).
So even if you dont see drives around outside a big blue dominated envirment, IBM is major player in the storage business, for insanly large requirements (which we all know) and everywhere else too.
And apparently they still have a nearly blank cheque research budget.
Welcome to the future folks ...
....
:-)
Where everyone walks around with a wristwatch size computer weighing 2 oz. capable of connecting to the global pervasive network wirelessly, with a bazillion byte hard disk, 1 TerraHertz (THz) processor, but still has
...
a keyboard that weighs 2 LBS, and is larger than my arm!
just my 2 cents
cheers
Congratulations on your purchase of Newtechs Petabyte drive! Good care of the Petabyte drive will ensure a long fruitfull life.
Warning! This Petabyte contains a small particle accelerator! Do not jar while in operation or the release of of least 2 MJ may occur!
Warning! No user serviceable parts!
Warning! Do not taunt the Petabyte drive!
Later
Erik Z
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
You don't think these stories plant themselves, do you?
Think of it as Happy Meals for Nerds.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
The story was "The Last Question." For those not familiar with it, it begins with someone asking a computer the question "How can you reverse entropy?" The computer doesn't know. It then follows the evolution of mankind and the computer through the millenium with the question being asked in various forms. At last, all the stars have burned out and the only thing left is the computer still trying to solve the last, unanswered question. Then the computer says "Let there be light" and there was light.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
They are sampling nano-fabricated 900MB chips on a footprint of like 5mmx15mm. They target releasing a 180GB drive this year, and a 1.4TB drive next year. All at a cost/MB cheaper than hard drives, a fraction of the operating power, 10 times the bandwidth, and no HD whine! :-)
In 3001, Arthur C. Clarke predicts that the maximum amount of data we'll ever be able to get on a device about the size of today's zip disks is about a petabyte (=1000 terabytes), a staggering amount of information. With this it would appear that we're getting one step closer to this limit, or at least *a* limit. It will be interesting to see what the actual maximum data density storage is... it might even get as far as using the orientation of quarks to store the data. With this then you could store the majority of the world's knowledge (if not all) in a canister of oxygen, or a jug of water.
However, it seems that the more storage we invent, the more we need so in that jug of water all you would probaly fit would be Windows3000. The real problem isn't being addressed here: how to use the storage we have efficiently rather than how to invent more to waste.
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Said it couldn't last, said it wouldn't last... This is the last stand against tomorrow's world.
And right now that seems to be the biggest problem they face with this technology, too.
From my point of view, the most interesting thing about this development (and one of the least commented-on, for some reason) is the fact that they're using bottom-up assembly for the recording medium, instead of a top-down process like almost everything else has required. This is a ground-breaking development in the nanotechnology field: instead of using an atomic force microscope to drag atoms into place, they're growing the magnetic domains in their final, self-organized locations.
This is great stuff!
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Politics is about making compromises. Religion isn't. --Michael Horton
What's funny about the above comment is that IBM actually advertised that their new 75Gig HD can store "up to 18 DVD movies".
I hope if IBM keeps on using these nanotech drives that they at least give them a nice orange color. I keep on losing all my nanotech drives either in my pants pocket or in the couch or something. Please, for all of us that lose things, keep on making drives with conventional technology so they can be standard sized. I don't want to have to reach for my microscope to install a nanotech drive.
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a funny comment: 1 karma
an insightful comment: 1 karma
a good old-fashioned flame: priceless
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
These would probably fit:
News Release direct from the IBM Research server. Notice they hope to get down to a single magnetic grain eventually, for a density increase of 1,000,000 rather than the mere 100 which this 10-times-smaller allows.
Although I'm putting it on my radar, I think that a little skepticism is in order. Remember bacteriorhodopsin memory devices? Probably not. They came along a few years ago as a memory chip that could store huge amounts of memory in a 3d bio-organic array. Problem was (as I recall) that they couldn't make the laser accurate enough to read it at useable densities.
Anyway, my point is, we see alot more new technology storage devices in development than we actually see come to market. Its a little like drug design (a field I'm familiar with), where only a very small percentage of potential drugs actually make it to market.
-- Moondog
[humor]
Where is CmdrTaco's translation from storage space into hours of mp3? I depend on this information to plan my future music library! When will it reach the point that you can fit the music equivilent of the library-of-congress onto a single storage device?
[/humor]
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Here is the result of your Slashdot Purity Test.
You answered "yes" to 86 of 200 questions, making you 57.0%
My company just bought a huge HP server. It's roomy enough to sit seven for dinner, muliple redundant power supplies, a 6 disk RAID system, ad nauseum. It's very impressive to look at. Of course, I could build a system to do the same thing at a fraction of the cost, but nobody would buy it because it's small, and doesn't Look Cool.
That's the hidden thing that many companies don't realize. Why did Intel start making CPU *cartridges*? Simple - a small 2x2 inch slab of silicon looks pathetic. "You paid $800 for *THAT*? Ahahahahaha!" They say. Now, you go and show them a stylish cartridge with a cool hologram on the side and all of the sudden "ooh, ahh!" and they want one too.
Nanotech is doomed.. it's too small. =)
and you don't even have to log in.
? tag=st.ne.1002.bgif.1003-200-1575458
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1575458.html
i browse at -1 because they're funnier than you are.