Nanotech To Replace Disk Drives Within Ten Years?

Ian Lamont writes "An Arizona State University researcher named Michael Kozicki claims that nanotechnology will replace disk drives in ten years. The article mentions three approaches: Nanowires (which replace electrons/capacitors), multiple memory layers on silicon (instead of a single layer), and a method that stores multiple pieces of information in the same space: 'Traditionally, each cell holds one bit of information. However, instead of storing simply a 0 or a 1, that cell could hold a 00 or a 01. Kozicki said the ability to double capacity that way — without increasing the number of cells — has already been proven. Now researchers are working to see how many pieces of data can be held by a single cell.'"

Comments

That cell could hold a 00 or a 01

[Anonymous Coward]

That is the highest precision ever achieved in a binary digit.

Here's a better replacement

[Anonymous Coward]

... .. . .. . . ... .

You see periods are a lot smaller than zeros and spaces - which could be used as 1s - don't take any space at all.

Multi-level cell == slowdown

[tepples]

Traditionally, NAND flash memory that uses a single cell to encode two bits as one of four voltage levels is called "multi-level cell" (MLC) flash memory. MLC typically performs more slowly than single-level cell for two reasons: the amplifier attached to each bit line takes longer to settle to a specific value, and the error correction takes longer to process.

Twice the space?

[Mean Mr. Mycroft]

Sounds like a two-bit technology to me.

Yes, you are.

[raygundan]

A cell that can hold two bits holds four times as many possible values as a cell that can hold one bit.

[0] [1]
[00] [01] [10] [11]

Of course, two one-bit cells hold the same number of values.

[0][0] [0][1] [1][0] [1][1]

Two one-bit cells = one two-bit cell. Twice the capacity. Not that the article is terribly clear-- if their "miracle device" can really only hold 00 and 01, they've just invented a crappy new notation for binary.

Re:Replace what?

[physicsboy500]

w00t! No more electrons! It's a good thing too... they were always so negative.

Flash took ten years to take off

[EmbeddedJanitor]

NAND flash was invented in 1988 (when working stuff was demonstrated). It took 10 years to really get going and a further five or more years to become really mainstream.

By comparison, nano-blaah is a long way off being able to demonstrate even a 1Mbyte storage, yet alone making it cheaply enough to be a mass storage player. I figure flash has a long life yet.

Re:That's just stupid

[Gibbs-Duhem]

Mod parent up...

Hard disks are absolutely, with no qualification, nanotechnology. In fact, hard disks were the *first* nanotechnology we ever used, anywhere. Each bit on a modern hard disk is literally nanometers on a side, the read head is a thin film nanometers in thickness, flying above the disk less than a micron above the surface! Saying that nanotechnology will replace that is like saying that wheat will replace rye as the best sandwich containing substance. Moronic.

When I was helping with a proposal to the EPA for regulating the environmental effects of nanotech, I needed to come up with a definition for nanotechnology. The *only* definition that exists for nanotechnology is a system where the relevant controlled length-scale is less than 100nm. Hard drives are the most advanced nanotechnology on earth!

Re:That's just stupid

[geekoid]

Not a nitpic at all.

Nanotechnology is just, well, a technology. They will use nanotechnology to create storage devices, sure. It's like saying
"Mass production will replace the buggy" in 1895.
Mass production of what?

or
"Are abiltiy to make things spin will be used to store vast amounts of data"

What will be created using nano-technology?