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Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores
brian0918 writes, "Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, easy way to manipulate the state of tiny magnetic structures, called vortex cores, quickly and without loss. From their press release: 'Up until now, very strong magnetic fields have been necessary to accomplish this, requiring highly complex technology. The new method might open up new possibilities for magnetic data storage. The directions of the small nanoscopic magnetic needles define a digital bit that is extremely stable in the face of frequently unavoidable external factors such as heat or interference from magnetic fields.'" You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it all.
Core memory eh? Why we used that in computers back when I was a kid!
For the non engineers like me... what does this mean in practical usage?
Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives? Is it cheaper to manufacture? More durable?
Being a notebook user, I'd love to see densities go way up so I can pack a lot more around with me.
Finally, we're moving towards the star-trek age of technology. "Captain, the SAN is down" doesn't sound anywhere near as impressive as "Captain, the Quantum Vortex Core has crashed!"
Global symbol "$deity" requires explicit package name at line 2. - If only $scripture started "use strict;"
Magnetic Storage Using Magic
There now everyone can understand.
"No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture." - Learned Hand
How much more pr0n?
Slash-for-Thought
Quantum . . . Vortex . . . Cores
I mean, dang, that name rocks!
I can only hope that drives using this technology have Sub-Ether interfaces and processor boards hosting neural nets harvested from the brains of silicon life forms from Mercury.
Can anyone, umm, translate that paragraph into everyday english? I don't think we went over how gyrations of the vortex structure can be reversed by applying short bursts of the sinusoidal excitation field with amplitude of about 1.5 mT in high school physics.....
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, easy way to manipulate the state of tiny magnetic structures, called vortex cores, quickly and without loss.
I hear that all they had to do was reverse the tachyon flow through the heisenberg compensators.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature
Nah. You had me at "quantum vortex cores."
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7118/fu ll/nature05240.html
This article was accepted just because it lets kdawson put "Quantum Vortex Cores" on the front page.
If you want to tip over a boat, start rocking back and forth, adding energy with each back and forth motion. I know what keeps the boat in the up or down state; what keeps the votex from from staying somewhere inbetween? Do you have to un-rock then engergy from it too?
science is a religion
that this either (or all) requires a tank of liquid helium, a roomful of sophisticated atomic scanning microscopes, or a highly radioactive source???
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I'm totally down with it!
Get Perpendicular!
--- There is a man in a smiling bag.
I knew this silicon thing was such a fad!
Now, the cool thing about magnetic core memory is that it saves its state, just like Flash. When the Computer History Museam restored a PDP-1, they were able to inspect the old contents of its RAM.
No, I will not work for your startup
So they finally did it. Quantum Buzzwords.
May God help us all.
Rock the boat!
Don't rock the boat, baby...
Rock the boat!
Don't tip the boat over...
Rock the boat!
Don't rock the boat, baby...
Rock the boooooaaaat!
I know that this is all really cool, but aren't Flash Memory's days numbered? I mean, ever since Samsung made their 40-nanometer chip (http://www.physorg.com/news79719955.html), I've been waiting anxiously for the Flash memory hard drive replacements. I'd give up my vortex core for a more stable and reliable storage solution, and I know many other people who would, too.
Must not have a) heard the song, b)saw the movie, c)read the book, d)am turning senile? What's the reference?
The paragraph said they use a scanning transmission x-ray telescope to read the gyrations (I think).
I doubt these quantum vortex cores can be used for storage without another way of detecting them.
If 10% of the hype revolving around storage in the last 5 years materialized, I'd be storing a terrabyte on a sheet of paper spit out by a magical unicorn's ass by now.
"Rock the Boat" by Hues Corporation
So scientists have been trying to detect it for 36 years, and only were able to do so 4 years ago? Something tells me that we won't be finding this in use for data storage anytime soon.
Anyone know how they can detect these vortex cores? It's great that they've found a "relatively" inexpensive way to reverse the core, but if you still need a magnetic force atomic microscope to "read" the thing, I don't see much practical use to it.
AccountKiller
You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it allDo you mean the Abstract?
Jettison? I saw that cartoon once. PHB? Isn't that a programming language?
And what's the going price on renting your sig? Is that a YRO story?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Stop rocking the boat.
Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors...
They charge for access to the full text because it is coming out in a print magazine. This is no different from copying the pictures from Playboy and handing them out for free. Do you think people will buy the magazine, or read your free copy? This kind of journal costs real money to print, and you just made it harder for them to get it.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
Cutting edge quantum physics in the late 80's. In your hard drives since the late 90's.
> If 10% of the hype revolving around storage in the last 5 years materialized, I'd be storing a terrabyte on a sheet of paper spit > out by a magical unicorn's ass by now.
How'd you get ahold of my grant proposal?
This will severly damage your pron collection because it will flip the picture around, so instead of seeing a nice full-frontal, you'll only see a butt & back.
All your music will run backwards and, if the Christian groups are right, will just turn into a whole lot of satanic chanting.
One place it will help though is changing your overdraft into a positive bank balance.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Writing 'Researchers at the Max Planck Institute' is only slightly more specific than 'at the University'. There's a whole bunch of those institutes; this one is the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung. The group also has people from Juelich and several universities.
The taxpayers of Germany and the US paid for this research. When Nature decides to let them read the article they paid for, I'll start respecting Nature's copyright.
"I have to replace the radioactive source in the quantum vortex core storage"
that's what I tell the users now!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
instant on?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
why do you reach for your revolver?
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
The structures were excited with an in-plane sinusoidal magnetic field resulting in a gyrotropic movement of the vortex core around the equilibrium position.
Translation: They made the suckers spin by applying AC current!
First, I must say that get perpendicular animation by Hitachi is awesome. http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_h ead/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html
To explain this topic a little better I am posting a recent paper I wrote. Its posted in PDF, under the creative commons liscense @ thinkfree.com
File http://www.thinkfree.com/filelink.tfo?filemasterno =551951&filekey=00odg0wy0z
Published http://www.thinkfree.com/common/view.tfo?method=vi ewPublish&uid=89152&fno=551951
Below is an except.
Using Quantum Vortex Cores To Defeat
The Superparamagnetic Effect In Magnetic Storage
One could argue that few new types of data storage devices have been invented. Traditional data storage exists in rings rotating around a disc. First in the analogue realm with the advent of the record player. Then came the digital realm which gave symbolic meaning to magnetic polarities on hard disk drives. As humans pursue the path of miniaturization, we find that the stability of our newtonian devices are being affected by what is predicted with Quantum Theory. Designs exploiting the properties in the quantum realm must be accomplished. Recent development shows, that it is within our capability to measure and systematically alter the spin direction of a single atom, when contained in a Lanau structure. The Quantum Vortex Core refers to the magnetic field created perpendicular to the direction of spin. Quantum Vortex Cores retain their polarities, allowing us to advance in data storage.
A brief understanding of Hard Disc Drive (HDD) technology and its limitations need to be known before Quantum Vortex Core can be understood in its application. For the last 50 years the HDD has used a method called longitudinal magnetic recording. Circular tracks make rings around the radius of a platter containing magnetic bits oriented north or south to the direction the platter spins. A device called an actuator has an inductive coil on its tip/head which converts electrical pulses into momentary magnetic fields. A certain layer of materials on the platter retain their magnetic orientation set by the write head. As the platter spins, the write head is positioned over the next bit. This process is reversible, and the data can be read by monitoring the electrical pulses coming from the similarly designed read head when passing over changing magnetic fields.
HDD are designed to shield from external magnetic fields, since common external magnetic fields exceed the 'crystalline anisotropy energy' needed to purposefully retain the orientation of the bits. Heat also plagues the stability of the data retained when energy from ambient temperature reaches the 'crystalline anisotropy energy' level (Nguyen). Until recently, this energy level has been ignored since the magnetic bits were significantly large enough to need exceedingly high temperatures to affect their base state, from which they will not move. As we approach miniaturization the energy to reach the crystalline anisotropy energy level becomes less. The field energy stored in each bit around the platter, begin to re-orient their neighbor bits; when this happens it is said to have reached its superparamegnetic limit (Public Domain).
Since the opposites attract / likeness repel effect plague miniaturized HDD when the bits are laid end to end. It only seems reasonable to reorient in such a way which they do not interfere. If the bits were positioned perpendicular (standing up on the disc) rather than laying flat, one also increases the data density as well as limiting the superparamegnetic effect (Hitachi). Perpendicular storage seems reasonable, but proves difficult, and
Once, there was a long winded man who said very little. There once was a man who said very little; who no one understood