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Data Transfer Has A Speed Limit

ChrisHanel writes "Yahoo News is reporting that despite the infinite climb data speeds seem to be making, scientists at Stanford say we'll eventually hit a barrier due to the inability to keep the data stable after a certain transfer speed. But no worries just yet; the watermark they've set is still 1,000 times faster than what we have now." Apparently: "The scientists confirmed this problem by firing up the particle accelerator at Stanford University and blasting electrons at a piece of the magnetic material used to store computer data."

5 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Limit only applies to Magnetic Storage by Novanix · · Score: 5, Informative

    While it does say that using the current magnetized bit storage system has a speed limit that is 1000 times the current, it is only with this method of storage. Hopefully by the time we could hit this limit we will have a new method of storage. Besides, if my data could be written at 1000x the max of current maybe I won't need memory any more (or maybe our storage will be memory). Anyone have any ideas what we will be storing at that speed? (other than everything happening around us and everyone else so we have instant replay on life).

  2. Re:Not transfer in the internet sense, by geoff313 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, no

    The problem comes from the transfer itself due to the limits of magnetic storage. While this isn't mentioned in the summary, if you were to RTFA then you would see that the problem arrives when you fire electrons at a magnetic storage material fast enough (approaching the speed of light) they stop behaving in the expected way, and start producing random results. This of course is unacceptable for a storage medium, because if you increase the increase the pulses to write to the disk to near the speed of light it will result in random bits being flipped here and there and corrupt your data.

    -geoff313


  3. Re:So true by kfg · · Score: 5, Informative

    I might point out that all natural laws are derived strictly through empirical observation. In fact, that's the very definition of such a law.

    Moore's Law is what an engineer would call a "rule of thumb." Something which is understood not to be a law, but within certain constraints can be treated as if it were. This observation is included in the full version of Moore's Law, as actually written by Moore himself.

    Like Newton's Law of Gravity, which can be applied as if it were law, so long as you are not Mercury, as was in noted by Newton himself in his original statement of his law.

    The writers of laws are not to be held accountable for the misinterpretations of others.

    None of this has much of anything to do with the article either (nor does the heading under which the story appears, which is what the OP was responding to, which is perfectly valid). However, I do not believe STFU is an argument, so I will not apply it to myself, or you for that matter.

    Post on, McDuff.

    KFG

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Re:No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. You are wrong. Quantum entanglement does not lead to faster-than-light data transfer. See here: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?numb er=612