One Atom = One Bit of Storage

[Ian]

Researchers at IBM have developed a new technique which may mean that future storage devices are able to store 1 bit of information with the use of a single atom - a huge breakthrough:

"The breakthrough, announced Friday, allows researchers to measure how long a bit of information can be retained in an individual atom. It does so by capturing, recording, and visualizing the magnetic properties of that atom in real time.

Using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to essentially record a "movie" of an atom's magnetic behavior, that behavior can now be analyzed at frame rates one million times faster than before, according to researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San José, California — down to a nanosecond time frame."

You can read more and watch a video at The Register

 

[nivrip]

Amazing ! What will they think of next?


Storage on individual protons, neutrons or electrons?

 

[Taffycat]

Technology certainly moves-on at an amazing pace. I was fascinated to think of a nanosecond thus:

"To put this in perspective, one nanosecond to one second is the equivalent of one second to 30 years."

Which helps some of us to put this kind of breakthrough into some perspective.... well okay, just me then.

 

[Chrisk262]

How about that: such knowledge of atomic-level activity could lead to advancements in photovoltaics, and the Almaden researchers added quantum computing to the nascent fields that could benefit from the technique.

I knew that all along ..... but am not sure what it means

 

[captain zed]

Here comes the Borg...........resistance is futile.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Not a lot of people know this but I have the whole unabridged edition of War and Peace underneath the fingernail of my left index finger.