Storing Data In Cow Guts?

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."

Comments

Cow Protein Storage?

[grunt107]

And you thought DVD rot was bad!

Storing data in protein globs?

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

If it's anything like the data in my secret directory, I forsee an irony overload of epic proportions.

So...

[The-Bus]

With cows having several stomachs, can you have a RAID then? How do you defragment the drives? Cowto-Bismol? And I'm saying right now I'm not gonna be the one that's going to "retrieve" the drives that aren't needed in the cow anymore.

Next-generation storage for old generation RPGs...

[b0r0din]

Running a MOO will never be the same.

I'm not liking this.

[djh101010]

Makes the whole concept of a "data dump" a lot less appealing.

Re:Is this kosher?

[KevinKnSC]

Similarly, would these offend the Hindu belief that cows are sacred, thus ending Indian outsourcing?

Ancient Tech!

[MooseByte]

Feh! The Sumerians were reading goat entrails for information ages before this came along.

Uh oh!

[cinderful]

Vegans are gonna be forced to use slower, less compatible soy-protein alternatives.

Sentient meat?

[djh101010]

Come on, you expect me to believe that this meat can _think_?

Not as impressive...

[Roguelazer]

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

:(

Re:Not as impressive...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's still 128 gigs... Thats a good deal in my book.

1099511627776 bits = 137438953472 bytes = 134217728 kilobytes = 131072 megabytes = 128 gigabytes.

Will it run under Windows?

[WormholeFiend]

When I visited the Veterinarian Dept. of a local university, I was shown a cow with a window on its side.

Students could open the window at their convenience to check the insides of the cow.

Ugh.

Judging by the article....

[boschmorden]

it seems that the (animal) FAT filesysem will be back!

Re::: ducks ::

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

If only they can somehow expand this technology to work with proteins from animals from the ursus or lupine families, then imagine the RAIDs you could create.

A bear-wolf cluster, if you will...

Moo of death.

[Trillan]

Be careful with the Iomega drives. If someone provides you with a bad cow, it may damage your drive such that it damages all other cows you use. The damage is subtle, but eventually all the data on your cows will be lost.

Re:Is this kosher?

[petsounds]

Well, it will definitely offend vegans such as myself. I imagine Hindus wouldn't be too keen on this, either. And what about the anti-GMO movement in Europe?

I never thought I'd have to worry about whether my media storage contains animal parts! What's next, hooking up genetically-altered electro-hamsters as a power supply?

Was that Jerky?

[ackthpt]

Ooooh! Beef jerky! Rghghgh.. *chomp* *chomp* *gulp* Aahhh!
</Homer>

Hey, has anyone seen our system backup?

<Homer>
D'oh!
</Homer>