Storing Data In Cow Guts?

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Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 21, 2004 @07:46AM from the don't-we-all-do-this-sometimes dept.

supersandra writes "News.com reports that companies are exploring how to use molten silicon, designer molecules, and even protein globules from cows as data storage media. The media made by Nanochip using molten silicon, called ovonic media, is similar to CDs or DVDs but can store much more data because the tools for reading and writing data could potentially be 25x smaller. Nanochip demonstrated a 1-inch square chip of material that could contain a terabit of data. ZettaCore has created a complex molecule that can retain or release up to eight electrons, exhibiting a voltage level that can be read as data, and thus each molecule can represent 4 bits of data. Another company, NanoMagnetics, uses a magnetic core surrounded by animal protein, and can also achieve a terabit of data per square inch."

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This is not funny because... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-21 07:50 · Score: 0, Informative

cows are sacred animals.
Not as impressive... by Roguelazer · 2004-07-21 07:58 · Score: 3, Informative

I was really impressed until I saw that it said "terabit". As in 1/8 of a terabyte. Which isn't a terrible lot...

1 terabit = 2^40 bits = 1099511627776 bits
1 terabyte = (2^40) * 8 bits = 8796093022208 bits

:(

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1. Re:Not as impressive... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-21 08:52 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Remember, this was a demo of a 1-inch square chip of material. How many square inch is one CD?
Re:Is this kosher? by dr_dank · 2004-07-21 08:01 · Score: 1, Informative

You should be ok as long as you don't eat the cow drive and wash it down with a glass of milk.

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Inaccurate reporting by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-21 08:02 · Score: 1, Informative

According to ZettaCore's web site, each molecule has four states (two bits), not four bits.
Re:k-zed by James+Turpin · 2004-07-21 08:06 · Score: 2, Informative

They might mean that it can vary between -8 and +8 inclusive, which gives 17 states, {-8,-7,-6,-5,-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}. You need 16 states for 4 bits, so that would do it. Or maybe you could take advantage of the 17th state by storing data in base-17 rather than hexadecimal - but thats just weird and would require processing to convert. Unfortunately, this will liekly lead to multiple formats depending on how the 17 possible states are mapped to the 16 hexadecimal digits, or whether all 17 states are in fact used to achieve maximum data compression.

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Mathematics is not a crime.
Re:Is this kosher? by Billy+the+Mountain · 2004-07-21 08:19 · Score: 2, Informative

Yeah, but I thought it was not kosher to wear, for example, leather shoes while attending a Green Bay Packers game wearing the obligatory cheese hat.

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