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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."
the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information
Is the long anticipated write-only memory here at last? Huzzah!
Researchers say that the greatest difficulty will be with the reading of information.
How the hell can they tell it's there if they can't even read it?
I'm already going batty trying to not lose these fucking tiny cartriges for the Nintendo DS. Now I'm going to have to keep track of a 10cm molecular-width wire and find myself losing them like pencils as they fall out of my pocket.
I have seen the future and it is inconvenient
thinks that CDs use magnetism to report on new tech?
"The microwires become diminutive substitutes for the CD-ROM, given that information can be stored magnetically on them, as with CDs."
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Backup is easy! The restore is the tricky part.
How the hell can they tell it's there if they can't even read it?
If 10GB of MP3s are written on a wire, and there is no reader to play it. Does it make a sound?
You can't take the sky from me...
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
This was also invented by Frank Herbert- Dune featured something called shigawire, which sounds very similar to what's described in TFA.