Anti-static Polymer Stores Data, Too

Tau Zero writes "The BBC reports that a group of scientists (including Stephen Forrest) have discovered a new use for the anti-static plastic film polyethylenedioxythiophene: storing up to a gigabyte per cubic centimeter. The storage technology resembles an old fuse-link PROM; a bit of polymer between two electrodes conducts electricity when new, but a strong pulse turns it into an open circuit. The polymer is already cheap, and read/write speeds are claimed to be good. The researchers predict that this could be made into working devices in a few years (no word on whether this means devices in the laboratory or retail packages)." Update: 11/29 16:34 GMT by CN : Whoops, we already reported this earlier, and I was fooled into thinking it new by the BBC. Given the slump of news due to the holiday weekend, it's still worth mulling over, though.

Comments

Dupe

[SiliconEntity]

See http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/12/214622 7 for a link with considerably more detail.

Portable MP3 Players

[Anonymous Coward]

I already see a use for this as a portable mp3 player. But this stuff rarely pans out as people claim, so I'm not holding out any hope.

WORM: write once, read many

[tepples]

Any device resulting from their work would be a "write-once, read-many" format ... They team estimates that working devices could be up to 10 times more dense than current hard disks.

...analogous to CD-R (recordable) as opposed to CD-RW (rewritable). How will common file systems and OS designs have to change to accommodate WORM media? Or is this not intended to displace hard disk drives?

WORM

[bobthemuse]

strong enough jolt of power it becomes permanently non-conducting

The only way a new form of permanent media can become popular is if it is much cheaper, faster, and more durable than CD-ROMs.

Even then, a gig in a block the size of a sugar cube (plus supporting electronics). Already this takes up more space-per-gig than a DVD. What's the advantage?

Re:WORM

[splutty]

Bob wrote:
Even then, a gig in a block the size of a sugar cube (plus supporting electronics). Already this takes up more space-per-gig than a DVD. What's the advantage?

Well.. For one thing what would you say about the fact that this technology doesn't use any moving parts? If you just plop some electrodes on it and can read the thing, then you're rid of ridiculous high spinning speeds, laser readers that need to move back and forth at insane speeds, etc.

Mad.

Re:Hmm...

[Beardydog]

I doubt it...I like my small transport media to be rewriteable, and this stuff isn't : / Even thought they're dirt cheap, I feel a pang of guilt every time I write one little file to a CD-R to give to pass on to a friend, and I think that guilt would only increase if I were burning something as awesome as a mini datacube. But, they could be a good, cheap, voluminous media for digital cameras and the like...

Re:What about Holographic memory?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hard disks do not last over geologic periods of time :) You are correct, it is not a quick clean flip...however, the amount of time it takes for these inversions to occur is considerably longer than the life of a hard drive.

Gigabyte per cubic centimeter?

[blair1q]

Sounds theoretical.

Theoretically, a 1-cm silicon memory chip stores way more than a GB per cc.

But good luck stacking them at that density with any hope of reliability.

Someone needs a review of science class

[Tau Zero]

Quoth the poster:

Would this plastic storage would be sensitive to magnetic damage like a traditional hard disk as well.

Why would a material whose properties depend on conductivity be affected by magnetic fields? C'mon, think before posting.

As well as optical storage (which we already use with spinning discs CD/DVD) optical memory will be able to integrate into optical processors

If you can only scan it at the speed of rotating media, you're way too slow for even secondary storage.

Finally, I read that the Earths' magnetic field can 'flip' every 100,000 years and we're about due for another flip soon. This would cause tremendous damage to all magnetically stored data, as well as plenty of electrical equipment, as it is not a quick clean flip, but equivalent to a massive electromagnetic storm right under our feet...

The flip of the poles is on-going, and has been going on for thousands of years. The pole-flip is to EMP (or anything else that might damage magnetic media) as the millimeter/year changes in sea level are to tsunamis.

(And IMHO, anyone who moderated the parent as "interesting" is even more ignorant than the poster. There are at least three of them with mod points in just one day, and that scares me.)