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Microwires Can Replace The DVD-ROM
neutron_p writes "A former Soviet Union military development finds its use in modern technology and still remains fascinating." The development comes in the form of a flexible microwire, 10 micrometers thick and 10cm long, with a metal body and a glass coating, which the linked article says "can store 10 Gigabytes of information. It is possible thanks to their magnetic properties. Anyway, it's not that easy. Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information."
This technology dates back a ways to an 1878 invention, and devices such as the Webster wire recorder of the 1940s and these models from WWII.
Its amazing how often new tech is really old tech.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The microwires become diminutive substitutes for the CD-ROM, given that information can be stored magnetically on them, as with CDs.
... And "10 million" is not a Giga ... So we are talking about 1.25 MegaBytes in 10 cm long. Hmmm ....
Since when information is stored magnetically on CDs ????
10 Gigabytes in 10 cm long
(...)
The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million divisions or cells and in each one of these a byte can be stored. In order to store the byte, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other.
Seems more like a bit on each cell, not bytes
What the hell is this article ???
the divisions are carried out internally by means of a process of anisotrophy.
Anisotrophy? What kind of "trophy" is that? However, there is something known as anisotropy.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
This kind of sounds like a cold-war Soviet press release.
"Yes, of course Comrade! Our new media-writing technology is vastly superior to that of the decadant Americans. It holds far more data, there's no dispute. Eh? You want to read the data you say? Well no... We are still working on reading device, but all the data is there, no doubt about it! Just look at it! Just by looking at it you can tell it is holding much more data! It's obvious! Another victory for the revolution! Rejoice!"
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
From the article: The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million divisions or cells and in each one of these a byte can be stored. In order to store the byte, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other.
When they say "byte" here, they seem to mean "bit". (for the script kiddies, there are 8 bits to the byte) Also, they're referring to "10 million divisions" not "10 billion divisions".
So it wouldn't be 10 gigabytes, it would be more like 1.2 megabytes, or roughly 122k/cm. To store 10 gigabytes, it would have to be over 838m long, or over 2750 feet.
Frankly, I'm not horribly impressed.
Not to mention, this is just in theory. It hasn't actually been done yet.
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
minidiscs are magneto optical. You can get them at best buy :P
Where did you hear that?
From How Stuff Works
"To create a rewriteable CD (CD-RW), you need a dye layer that can be changed back and forth between opaque and transparent. This page discusses the special material that CD-RW's use. The material has the property that it can change its transparency depending on temperature. Heated to one temperature, the material cools to a transparent state; heated to another temperature, it cools to a cloudy state. By changing the power (and therefore the temperature) of the writing laser, the data on the CD can be changed, or "rewritten.""
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Go back in time. Wire predated tape, actually. The original dictation machines were wire recorders. Wire recorders are still used for flight data and cockpit voice recorders in commercial aircraft (though they are being slowly phased out and replaced, I believe, with flash memory).
Another novel moment in the history of wire recorders: one of the first VTRs (used at the BBC) was a linear "tape" recorder. Bandwidth being proportional to the speed of the media across the head, they moved the "tape" at amazingly high speed. The only "tape" that would stand up to the stress was actually made of steel - making it more like flat wire than what we think of as tape. Couple the weight of the tape with the amount of it you needed and you wound up with huge 10 foot diameter spools of the stuff. The machine was also quite dangerous - if the tape broke, it would hurl fragments of steel that bore a not-so-passing resembelence to razor blades.
Fortunately, helical scanning was invented, which allows the heads to fly across the tape while the tape itself moves relatively slowly. But now we're drifting off topic.
Note that since the slashdot article the hosting organization has gone in and made an editorial change with a comment pointing out that the 10 million number is a typo.
No matter how bad things look, there are hedious details you've missed.
Keep reading. It gets better! One cell can store a byte! Soooooo. Either one cell has 256 discernable levels, or they have defined "cell" in a funny way.
But let's assume that the article was not written by a 4th grader. What good is this? How could you possibly have something this fine be able to be read without breaking?
All modern media is 2D. Floppy, CD, DVD, HD all store data on the surface of a disc. Tape units store data in a 2D at little stripes recorded on the surface of a tape. This means that you can make the tapes and discs thick enough not to break.
What do you do for something that can probably be broken by dropping a piece of paper on it?
Hmmmm. On second thought, the idea of "data velcro" sounds neat. How about data velvet? "My painting of Elvis is also a 12GB mass storage unt."
Data underwear? "Caution. Unrecoverable skid-mark error. Please launder and try again."
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
I know there have been a ton of posts saying how the wire only holds 10 million bits and that's only 10 megs, but if you go back and rtfa again they have updated it, it now reads:
"The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million [editor's note: Elhuyar Fundazioa made a mistake here, should be billion] divisions or cells and in each one of these a byte can be stored. In order to store the byte, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other."
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
A wire-guided weapon is one that trails a wire from controller to weapon as it flies/swims/moves, allowing control signals to be sent from controller to weapon without those nasty RF emissions that can be jammed.
Yes, a Mk 48 torpedo trails a miles long wire behind it as it goes....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
CDRWs are NOT magnetic. Old style WORM and MO drives used magneto-optical technology, but current CDRWs use a dye that can be altered between transparent and opaque states by the laser.
How do CD-RWs Work
Sometimes my arms bend back.
This article is full of crap. An angstrom is 10^-10 metres, and corresponds to the diameter of a hydrogen atom. In order to linearly store 10 gigabits (let's assume that the author intended to use "bits" rather than "bytes") in a distance of 0.1 metres, each bit would have to be 10^-11 metres long, which corresponds to a length of 0.1 angstroms. If the author mistook "giga" for "mega", and intended that the wire could store 10 megabits, then that would mean that each magnetic cell would be 10^-8 metres long - 100 angstroms or 10 nanometres. Storing a magnetic bit in such a short distance would be an impressive feat.