Slashdot Mirror
"Colossal Magnetic Effect" Could Lead To Another Breakthrough In Storage Tech
Bryant writes "Scientists with the Carnegie Institution for Science have discovered what could bring yet another massive advance in memory and storage. The discovery, a magnetoresistence literally 'up to 1000 times more powerful' than the Giant Magnetoresistence Effect discovered roughly 20 years ago, which led to one of the major breakthroughs in memory, seems to be a result of high-pressure interactions between Manganites. Manganites aren't new to this game; MRAM uses Manganite layers to achieve the Magnetic Tunnel Effect needed to keep the state of memory stable. Applying significant amounts of pressure to known tech-useful materials isn't a new trick; you might recall the recent breakthrough with Europium superconductivity thanks to similar high-pressure antics."
This discovery seems to still be in the very preliminary stages. It is premature to conclude that this will lead to substantial improvements. Putting things under high pressure is difficult and keeping them under high pressure is really hard (although from my minimal physics understanding it looks like this could be used to assist in low pressure situations also).
One thing is certain. If this does lead to improvement in memory we'll have a few months of people asking whatever they could do with all that memory. And then a few years after they'll complain that it isn't enough.
The problem isn't storage its speed. Really with 1TB of HD space there isn't anything you can't have a lot of. On the other hand I/O, especially magnetic I/O is the main bottleneck. Storage isn't a problem.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
well, atleast it will be cheaper than SSS's
Argonne, ILâ"Millions of people today carry around pocket-sized music players capable of holding thousands of songs, thanks to the discovery 20 years ago of a phenomenon known as the âoegiant magnetoresistance effect,â which made it possible to pack more data onto smaller and smaller hard drives. Now scientists are on the trail of another phenomenon, called the âoecolossal magnetoresistance effectâ (CMR) which is up to a thousand times more powerful and could trigger another revolution in computing technology. Understanding, and ultimately controlling, this effect and the intricate coupling between electrical conductivity and magnetism in these materials remains a challenge, however, because of competing interactions in manganites, the materials in which CMR was discovered. In the June 12, 2009, issue of the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers report new progress in using high pressure techniques to unravel the subtleties of this coupling.
To study the magnetic properties of manganites, a form of manganese oxide, the research team, led by Yang Ding of the Carnegie Institutionâ(TM)s High Pressure Synergetic Center (HPSync), applied techniques called x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and angular-dispersive diffraction at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. High pressure XMCD is a newly developed technique that uses high-brilliance circularly polarized x-rays to probe the magnetic state of a material under pressures of many hundreds of thousands of atmospheres inside a diamond anvil cell.
The discovery of CMR in manganite compounds has already made manganites invaluable components in technological applications. An example is magnetic tunneling junctions in soon-to-be marketed magnetic random access memory (MRAM), where the tunneling of electrical current between two thin layers of manganite material separated by an electrical insulator depends on the relative orientation of magnetization in the manganite layers. Unlike conventional RAM, MRAM could yield instant-on computers. However, no current theories can fully explain the rich physics, including CMR effects, seen in manganites.
âoeThe challenge is that there are competing interactions in manganites among the electrons that determine magnetic properties,â said Ding. âoeAnd the properties are also affected by external stimuli, such as, temperature, pressure, magnetic field, and chemical doping.â
âoePressure has a unique ability to tune the electron interactions in a clean and theoretically transparent manner,â he added. âoeIt is a direct and effective means for manipulating the behavior of electrons and could provide valuable information on the magnetic and electronic properties of manganite systems. But of all the effects, pressure effects have been the least explored.â
The researchers found that when a manganite was subjected to conditions above 230,000 times atmospheric pressure it underwent a transition in which its magnetic ordering changed from a ferromagnetic type (electron spins aligned) to an antiferromagnetic type (electron spins opposed). This transition was accompanied by a non-uniform structural distortion called the Jahn-Teller effect.
âoeIt is quite interesting to observe that uniform compression leads to a non-uniform structural change in a manganite, which was not predicted by theory,â said Ding, âoeWorking with Michel van Veenendaalâ(TM)s theoretical group at APS, we found that the predominant effect of pressure on this material is to increase the strength of an interaction known as superexchange relative to another known as the double exchange interaction. A consequence of this is that the overall ferromagnetic interactions in the system occur in a plane (two dimensions) rather than in three dimensions, which produces a non-uniform redistribution of electrons. This leads to the structural distortion.â
Another intriguing response of manganite to high p
In the future, instead of using disk compression, you can get your fat momma to sit on your computer.
I don't think I'd be complaining much about huge amounts of cheap storage.
However I'd complain about low bandwidth and high latency.
Imagine if you have 100TB drives but they only do sequential transfers at 200MB/sec and are still stuck at about 10milliseconds access time (7200rpm).
What that means: it'll take 6 days to transfer 100TB at 200MB/sec, and random transfer speeds will be about as crap as now (1-2MB/sec).
...someone been watching too much Star Trek.
seems to be a result of high-pressure interactions between Manganites. Manganites aren't new to this game
For shame /. No comments or jokes on the obvious? Its right there for the taking.
Disclaimer: I am not god.
We may not be created equal
But we can be treated equal.
At last! I hope my magnetic personality won't wipe this new technology as well.
Should that Giant Magnetoresistive? Someone else seems to so because the article is tagged "typoinsummary". Google and I haven't heard much about Great Magnetoresistive effect in the past, so unless it's some obscure term...
But hey, it's not my area of expertise and I certainly agree that with the sentiment that this magnetoresistive stuff is rather great!
How about the "Super-Hyper-Colossal-Magnetoresistence Effect?"
At some point, you run out of superlatives and need to go Exponential:
Magneto X 10^Super-Hyper-Colossal
-S
Your mother's tongue ring wasn't made of ferrous materials.
Shouldn't there be a "Mega" in there somewhere?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Super-Hyper-Colossal-Magnetoresistence-Effect-Mega-Zord! What the Power Rangers use to defeat the evil forces of insufficient memory.
you might recall the recent breakthrough with Europium superconductivity thanks to similar high-pressure antics.
Well who wouldn't? *shakes head*
Gosh darn newfangled Europium superconductivity breakthroughs that come out of high-pressure antics. Kids these days.
Colossal magnetoresistance in manganites are discovered some 15+ years ago.
And this area has been very hot in recently years with tons of papers coming out every month. In fact I did my own masters thesis on this particular topic.
You guys should really check this out, it is so true...
> Magneto X 10^Super-Hyper-Colossal
But how do you get Magneto & Professor X to work together to produce it? That's the hard part...
Colossal magnetoresistance in manganites are discovered some 15+ years ago.
And this field is so hot in recently years that tons of papers come out every month. In fact I did my masters thesis just on this particular topic.
You guys should check this out, it is so true.
I suspect never. Very high pressures + spinning media doesn't work particularly well. Not to say this investigation will not lead to some interesting condensed matter physics, which in turn could lead to actual discoveries that make it to market.
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
When I did a presentation on hard drives 3 years ago, I had already read some things saying that the Colossal Magnetorsestive Effect was the next step in read-write head technology. The Wikipedia page says the effect was discovered in 1993. This new discovery might make it more feasible, but hard drive technology developers already knew that CMR would be a part of the technology going forward.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
... think "oh no, here is another 2012 crackpot article again"?
I was very pleased that it was not another 2012 crackpot article, i think i might have exploded into a colossal magnetic effect.
man, I understand the concept of trolling, but really... some humans are just fucking defective, even by human standards...
Don't underestimate the bandwidth of station wagon full of magnetic tapes, could be updated: Don't underestimate the bandwidth of a briefcase full of Colossal(Tm) hard disks? Don't underestimate the size of my portable drive, I've got every song that made it into the charts in every country on this Colossal(Tm) thing. Jenna Jameson 2010, 200Mb/sec required for ColossalVision(Tm)
You guys should check this out, it is so true.
Yes. And that is the case ALL the time. We need special hats or something to protect us.
-FL
>>How about the "Super-Hyper-Colossal-Magnetoresistence Effect?"
Yeah, they were really short sided when they skipped directly from "giant" to "colossal". As all nerds know, the progression goes:
Fine -> Diminutive -> Tiny -> Small -> Medium -> Large -> Huge -> Gargantuan -> Colossal.
Since giants are Huge, the next step up in technology would be Gargantuan.
(And after Colossal comes Colossal+, of course.)
How about the "Super-Hyper-Colossal-Magnetoresistence Effect?"
I'm waiting for the Ludicrous Magnetoresistence Effect.
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
What the fuck is going on here?
Google-resistive.
Much like a lot of Slashdotters.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
2x more powerful, is included in the set of "up to" 1000x more powerful.
Causation can cause correlation
now I know I'm getting old...power rangers references on slashdot, modded up.
huh.
NOW how am I to train for my upcoming bout against PISTON HONDA?!?!?!?!
It's an unfortunate fact that the naming convention included an superlative... now they have to keep upping the ante each time a new property of magnetoresistance is discovered.
Who modded that offtopic?
Just because Lost is shit is no reason to downmod the poor souls who still watch it.
Always back up, never back down. ---- Think you're cool 'cos your uid is prime? Take mine, modulo the one digit integers
Giant resistance? Colossal effect?
We're about two adjectives away from Ginormous.
All your Manganites are belong to us!