Nickel Sensors Could Raise Hard Disk Capacity

Makarand writes "Tiny filaments of nickel, thinner than a wavelength of visible light, acting as magnetic sensors may expand the storage capacity of hard disks many times. Although, technologies exist to increase hard disk capacity, reading data bits reliably from such disks has proven difficult because as data bits become smaller their magnetic fields are weaker and difficult to pick up. Nickel filaments are capable of picking up of these weak magnetic fields using a phenomenon called "ballistic magnetoresistance" which is not completely understood. As the sensors are only a few atoms wide the electrons travel along a straight line in the conductor greatly enhancing the binary signal picked up from the data bits. These sensors could also be used to detect biomolecules in low concentrations."

Comments

Bloody hell.

[caluml]

Tiny filaments of nickel, thinner than a wavelength of visible light,

Is it just me or are we getting too clever? :)
Soon we'll be storing gigabytes on a single atom...

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tiny filaments of nickel, thinner than a wavelength of visible light

Then how do we know they're there?

Ballistic?

[TheSHAD0W]

I dunno... First we had giant magnetoresistance, then colossal magnetoresistance... Ballistic just doesn't seem to fit. We should call it gargantuan magnetoresistance, or Herculean... I know! Let's call it "humongous magnetoresistance"!

Re:Ballistic?

[iomud]

I vote for ludicrous magnetoresistance.

Re:Ballistic?

[modecx]

Our platters have gone plaid!

New HD technology!

[apoc.famine]

If I had a nickel for every time...

Of course

[mccalli]

The more nickels you apply, the higher capacity hard drive you will get.

Phhh. I knew that and I'm not even American...

Cheers,
Ian

Cool..

[Anonymous Coward]

"ballistic magnetoresistance"

Last time a drive failed on me, I made it go ballistic too, and it offered little resistance (however the concrete offered considerable resistance). Is this a similar thing?

Re:Is it wise ?

[Waffle Iron]

To store critical (or any data of some value ie: not junk) data on technology that is so vunurable to external forces if the technology is so small/fragile ?

There was a brief time a few decades ago when the essence of my entire being was contained in a single molecule, with no backups! Luckily, I made it through that episode relatively unscathed.

Ever since then, I've been making backups like crazy.

Re:Is it wise ?

[shogun]

There was a brief time a few decades ago when the essence of my entire being was contained in a single molecule, with no backups! Luckily, I made it through that episode relatively unscathed.
Ever since then, I've been making backups like crazy.

I'm yet to make any fully redundant backups myself as opposed to your incremental ones, however I fear there may have %50 data loss in any such backups and the data space will have to be shared with someone elses.

Technobabble!

[Jogar the Barbarian]

Ballistic Magnetoresistance?? Souds almost like technobabble; I had a funny thought that you could automatically generate alerts like this every six months using a random "new technology" generator.

June 2003: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Ferrous Multipliers*!

January 2004: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Quantum Isolators*!

June 2004: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Magneto Flux Capacitors*!

My 60GXP in my Tivo keeps on tickin'

[John Jorsett]

I don't know what all the fuss about the 60 GXP is about. I've had one running nonstop in my Tivo for 2.5 years with nary a problem. Of course those OTHER 3 I've replaced in my computers kind of ruin the averages ...

Girls

[SB5]

Girls have been saying this for years; Size doesn't matter. Anywho, what girls really want is reliability, at least that's what I have been told.

Then again, I'm slacking on that end, among others....

Re:Is it wise ?

[rtaylor]

The backup process isn't so bad -- but have you tried a restore yet?

"Ballistic Magnetoresistance?"

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

"Ballistic Magnetoresistance?" I thought that was the resistance offered by the magnetic platters when I use my .45 to read-protect my drive from the FBI/BSA/MS.

Giant, Colossal... Ballistic?

[wirelessbuzzers]

This sounds like vaporware. It will never make it to the market: "ballistic magnetoresistance" just doesn't capture the imagination. Extraordinary magenetoresistance was a good start, but I'm looking for the next biggest thing in hard drive technology from either "bloody huge magnetoresistance" or "fucking enormous magnetoresistance" technologies.

Geez. They might as well have named it obese magnetoresistance. Ballistic my ass.