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HP, Princeton Develop New Memory Material
An anonymous reader writes "Hewlett-Packard and Princeton researchers say they've developed a hybrid material that could be used for super-compact electronic memory, making the CD, DVD and similar media seem enormous and clunky by comparison. As reported by Science Blog, 'The researchers achieved the result by discovering a previously unrecognized property of a commonly used conductive polymer plastic coating. Their memory device combines this polymer, which is inexpensive and easy to produce, with very thin-film, silicon-based electronics.'"
This is another thing that strikes me as being similiar to the battery "advances" we've had over the years that have never made it into consumer products. We've been hearing about MRAM and storage densities for years, and yet we still don't have instant-on computers. I wonder if we'll see an article about how these advances are idling just like the battery field.
Fantastic. Now lets get with the program and refer to this permanent, high capacity "memory" as "storage".
It seems like every week we're subjected to another story about some research lab somewhere devising a new type of memory that's harder, better, faster, stronger, fitter, happier, more productive, and what have you. This seems all wonderful, but when are we actually going to start seeing this new technology? With these all too frequent advances in memory, all going in seemingly different directions, all sponsored by different entities, doesn't it seem like it is just going to take longer for any of them to become an accepted standard, and actually put in use outside the lab?
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
You know, it's not like just because it's "write once read many", it's useless.
Imagine a new CD or DVD format where the media doesn't have to be spun. Portable music / video players could be nearly solid-state and thus more durable and compact and require far less maintenance.
I'd happily move to a new format of music where I could carry something like a pack of gum filled with "sticks" of music and pop one into a tiny player even smaller than that of the iPod....
Furthermore, this sort of thing is great for archiving data, which is the main purpose anyone talked about in the article. More data archived in less space = good, period... it takes up less bookshelves or whatever...
My only concern is that with the "fuse" design, how susceptible is it to be ruined by an errant static shock, etc?
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1GB per cubic centimeter? a 5GB rod is 5x1x1 centimeters...doesn't make a dvd seem enormous to me.
This will be worthwhile if for nothing else than finally giving all us nerds the "data crystals" we have always wanted from various crap sci-fi...
Data crystals are based on holographic data storage. Holographic memory has the advantage of preserving vast amounts of data throughout the volume of the crystal, not just on the surface, plus if it's chipped or broken each piece still retains the entire holographic image. It's completely different from any data storage method used today, including this one.
For various reasons, mostly cost and implementation, holographic data storage has never materialized. You can read a little more about it at HowStuffWorks and other places. (I googled for "holographic memory data storage" and found that page at the top.)
Although useful for write-once archiving of data, this format does not seem very useful for CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM applications. CD-ROM and DVD-ROMs can be cheaply mass-produced in pressing operations that simultaneously form all the data into the disk.
In contrast, it would appear that a copy of the data must be sequentially downloaded into each memory device -- like writing to an EPROM. I doubt this can be done very quickly without thermal damage to the device. Without a quick and cheap way of mass-producing the memory device (with the data on it) this technology is less useful for content distribution applications. It still has some potential for archiving, though.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
How is this truely a step back when it add huge advantages if used properly... Since it eliminates the need of a motor to spin a CD.. this would be a perfect replacement andding countless hours of battery life in portable media devices... Flash cards are costly and have a somewhat limited lifespan.. If this media is sold cheap enough... Who really cares if its rewritable or not... if I have 2 gigs of storage with a media that 1.5 inches square and costs me 2$.. I would gladly replace this media when its full... or what not...
I fail to see How this is a Leap back... Its a good leap forward... After all.. It will be eliminating quite a few problems asociated with CD type media.. No more scratches.. Less moving parts to break in the players.. longer battery life... This is an advancement... It will be hard to get people to start moving from cd's to a new storage medium... MP3 storage and mobility could help break down the barriers.
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt