Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NCSU's Fingernail-Size Chip Can Hold 1TB

Posted by timothy on from the proof-of-concept dept.

CWmike writes "Engineers from North Carolina State University have created a new fingernail-size chip that can hold 1 trillion bytes (a terabyte) of data. They said their nanostructured Ni-MgO system can store up to 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text, 'far exceeding the storage capacities of today's computer memory systems.' Using the process of selective doping, in which an impurity is added to a material whose properties consequently change, the engineers worked at nanoscale and added metal nickel to magnesium oxide, a ceramic. The resulting material contained clusters of nickel atoms no bigger than 10 square nanometers — a pinhead has a diameter of 1 million nanometers. The discovery represents a 90% size reduction compared with today's techniques, and an advancement that could boost computer storage capacity. 'Instead of making a chip that stores 20 gigabytes, you have one that can handle one terabyte, or 50 times more data,' said the team's leader, Jagdish 'Jay' Narayan, director of the National Science Foundation Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at the university."

23 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Finger nail-sized chip? by vertinox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are we talking in units of man hands or lady hands?

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    1. Re:Finger nail-sized chip? by clyde_cadiddlehopper · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mama was apparently wrong about nailbyting.

      --
      Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
    2. Re:Finger nail-sized chip? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are we talking in units of man hands or lady hands?

      I asked a female co-worker to help me compare, and she obliged......by flipping me off. At least I got a good look at her nail. The things we nerds endure for science.
           

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Finger nail-sized chip? by fast+turtle · · Score: 3, Funny

      The Trim Command works much better as it doesn't fragment the file system as badly as nailbyting does. So no, mama wasn't wrong

      --
      Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
    4. Re:Finger nail-sized chip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That reminds me of a true story.

      A few years ago I received my first PDA phone. It was HTC through AT&T and it did have a camera. I went through the office asking people for a picture for my phone. Explaining that when they dialed me, I could see their picture instead of the phone number. I went through about 20 offices and cubicles on my break to get those pictures.

      They ALL GAVE ME THE FINGER. Every single one of those comical bastards. No prompting, No hesitation. It was, "Can I get a picture of you for my phone?". They all turned around and flipped me off. Women as well as men.

      Even the owner of the company was there that day. He flipped me off too.

      Could it have been me? Nah.

    5. Re:Finger nail-sized chip? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      It was memories of the Vista you installed on all PC's.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. Dang it! by mhajicek · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm going to have to buy The White Album again!

    1. Re:Dang it! by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm going to have to buy The White Album again!

      I just bleach my shaded albums.
         

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. damn by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Funny

    that is tiny.
    If that had been available earlier this year, I wouldv had it implanted :D

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:damn by Rei · · Score: 2, Funny

      Implanted? Just like that? Are you one of these people? ;)

      --
      It's a Cyrillic alphabet. It's like all those keys you never push on a calculator.
  4. Re:What is the ETA? by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sounds promising, but how many months/years/decades before we can reasonably expect to see this used on a wide scale?

    Don't worry, all flying cars will have at least one. Further, the next version of Duke Nukem will ship on such a chip.
         

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  5. Re:Trollin'. by Triela · · Score: 0, Funny

    A trillion bytes?

    1000000000000 b / 640 kb

    That's enough for over 1.5 million people!!

  6. Wait!!! by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    can store up to 20 high-definition DVDs or 250 million pages of text

          Wait, how many Libraries of Congress is that??? Now I'm totally confused, you keep switching the units on me!

          On second thoughts, it can probably store 1 copy of Windows 8.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Wait!!! by batquux · · Score: 2, Funny

      Which puts this device at around 5.351x10^5 libraries of congress per football field.

  7. The good news by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    It will be commercially available by January. The bad news is, this is a write only memory device.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:The good news by OnlyPostsWhilstDrunk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, it's for classified documents.

      --
      Sig: I don't spell check and this is legit. This was written while I was drunk, and quite possibly with m eyes closed, b
    2. Re:The good news by fractalspace · · Score: 5, Funny

      Workaround is to make a backup of your data before writing to this device, just in case you need it again.

  8. Re:There is no chip. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Two better words: Huge tits.

    I even re-used a lot of your letters...

  9. Re:There is no chip. by kaizokuace · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not the size that matters. It's how you use it ;p

    --
    Balderdash!
  10. Re:There is no chip. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    In fact, my actual fingernail already contains maybe a petabyte of storage.
     

    You need to wash your hands more often

  11. Bad linux jokes for 1000 by cosm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Alex: "Two geeks penetrating a system backdoor?"

    Contestant: "What is DDRASSRAM?, Alex."

    Alex: Painfully correct sir, painfully correct.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
  12. Re:Attention Windows Clickarounds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    C:\>head -n 1000000 /dev/random > Windows.com
    'head' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.
    WTF?! It's not working. I tried rebooting, but I got the same problem. Not even running as Administrator helped.
    Can you please give me head? You can email me at AnonymousCoward@aol.com.
    Also, I'd like to know how you know so much about me, and why you're using my name, and give me some Photoshop tips while you're at it.

  13. Re:There is no chip. by belthize · · Score: 2, Funny

    The resulting storage of 1,000,000 people typing away on slashdot will eventually encode a monkey.