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"Magnetic Tornadoes" Could Offer New Data Storage Tech
coondoggie writes to tell us about the latest technique researchers are investigating as a possible means to store data, magnetic tornadoes. "Conventional computer memories store data in "bits" that consist of two magnetic elements that record data in binary form. When these elements are magnetized in the same direction, the computer reads the bit as a '0'; when magnetized in opposite directions, the bit represents a '1,' researchers stated. According to scientists, a vortex forms spontaneously — one vortex per disk — in a small magnetic disk when the disk's diameter falls below a certain limit. Although the vortex does not whirl about like a meteorological tornado, the atoms in the material do orient themselves so that their magnetic states, or 'moments,' point either clockwise or counterclockwise around the disk's surface. At the center of the disk, the density of this rotation causes the polarity of the vortex core to point either up out of the disk or down like a tornado's funnel, researchers stated. Because the vortices that form on the disks contain two independently controllable and accessible magnetic parameters, they could form the basis for quaternary bits that would contain data written as a 0, 1, 2, or 3."
How do we know these magnetic tornadoes won't grow and destroy our trailer parks?????
No, you can read it like two bits at once. Those bits would be actually separate channels for separate binary physical states, not one quaternary state.
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Is a "quaternary bit" a "quaternary binary digit"? Doesn't make sense. I think you're after a "quaternary digit", or "quit".
I like the sound of 'quigit'.
Quigit eh? Quyte nice. You'll get no quyble from me.
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Why didn't I think of that? Tornadoes, in retrospect, seem like the PERFECT place to put my ordered data.
This brings a whole new meaning to the term...
Quaternary would directly translate from binary. No fuzzy math needed.
00b=0q
01b=1q
10b=2q
11b=3q
Each quaternary bit would store two binary bits, all translated by the device. Bytes would still be 8 binary bits, but only 4 quaternary bits. Much easier than translating between trinary and binary...
And, as they are talking about storage medium, NOT processors, there's no need to recompile. Just have the device handle the translation, much in the same way it's done for CDs and flash memory.