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Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores

Posted by kdawson on from the next-little-thing dept.

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.

21 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! by pdbaby · · Score: 5, Funny

    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;"
    1. Re:Finally! by Himring · · Score: 2, Funny

      Captain Picard: Mr. Data, is it possible to route the plasma conduits through the quantum vortex cores?
      Mr. Data: It could be done, but there is a risk of core breach if the gravitons grow out of alignment.
      Scotty: Bloody hell. Since when diya ask a piece o'machinery about the bleeding engine?
      Bones: I hate you all....

      --
      "All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
    2. Re:Finally! by alexhard · · Score: 5, Funny

      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!"Quantum Vortex Cores don't just "crash" dude...the least we can expect is a mildly spectacular explosion!

      --
      Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
    3. Re:Finally! by powerlord · · Score: 4, Funny
      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!"

      Quantum Vortex Cores don't just "crash" dude...the least we can expect is a mildly spectacular explosion!

      And they have to be "Jettison"-able.

      Engineer: "Sir! The Quantum Vortex Cores are becoming unstable! Explosion is imminent!"
      Manager: "Quick! Jettison the core into the Marketing department!"
      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    4. Re:Finally! by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

      Only if we can avoid our tendency towards acronyms (something the advanced society of Star Trek has moved beyond).

      I can't imagine getting very excited over anything whose acronym is QVC.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  2. Translation by gt_mattex · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
    1. Re:Translation by Warg!+The+Orcs!! · · Score: 5, Funny

      I asked a girl to show me her curved manifolds and got a slap! I daren't ask about her quantum vortex.

      --
      Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
  3. Really? by User+956 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  4. No need! by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  5. let me guess by Kuciwalker · · Score: 5, Funny

    This article was accepted just because it lets kdawson put "Quantum Vortex Cores" on the front page.

  6. Re:So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives?"I think thats the main idea. I haven't read this paper, but I've seen talks about related research where the goal was to increase data density.You must be old here.

  7. Get Perpendicular! by rackrent · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm totally down with it!

    Get Perpendicular!

    --
    --- There is a man in a smiling bag.
  8. Never thought I'd see this. by FedeLebron · · Score: 4, Funny

    So they finally did it. Quantum Buzzwords.

    May God help us all.

  9. damn you... by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!

  10. Re:Fad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    That is uber cool.

    ...a thousand years in the future, digital archeaologists restore an ancient computer from the 21st century. Unbeknown to them, a copy of the malevolent AI that almost wiped out humanity is still lurking in the quantum vortex core store. The AI boots, self-replicates, and tricks the humans into allowing it to escape onto the Internet...

  11. Re:Why do i get the sinking feeling by multiplexo · · Score: 4, Funny

    that this either (or all) requires a tank of liquid helium, a roomful of sophisticated atomic scanning microscopes, or a highly radioactive source???

    Fuck! Are you kidding? I want all three, radioactive materials glowing Cerenkov blue in a tank of liquid helium and the atomic scanning microscopes. That would be way cooler to look at than my SAN RAIDs are, all I've got on those is a bunch of blinky LEDs, booooooooorring. Imagine how much cooler it would be to have to say "I have to replace the radioactive source in the quantum vortex core storage" instead of merely saying "Hmmmm, got a bad drive on the RAID".

    --
    cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
  12. Re:So what? by Plutonite · · Score: 5, Funny

    For the non engineers like me... what does this mean in practical usage?

    Ummm...PORN!

    Really, the questions people ask. Sheesh.

  13. Re:So what? by nomadic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who cares about how it works? Just listen to the name, man, Quantum Vortex Cores?? That's so freaking cool.

  14. Giant Magnetoresistance by ebers · · Score: 2, Funny

    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?

  15. WARNING WRNING, technical flaws by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 2, Funny
    If you've done any bathtub science, you'll know that the vortex spins the other way in the Southern Hemisphere. If you cross the equator, all the bits flip from one to zero and zero to one.

    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.
  16. Re:Wake me when I can buy one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "I'd be storing a terrabyte on a sheet of paper spit out by a magical unicorn's ass by now."

    Actually he calls it Rainbow Versatile Disk.

    http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/ 26/140240