Every year we see a number of advancements in technology. Hard drives get bigger, processors get faster, and typically devices use less power. This happens through iteration of designs, and the scaling down of existing technology. So we store a bit more data every year in the same space, and make processors a few nanometers smaller.
Although such an iterative method and slow advancements works, it does have its limits, and IBMhas decided to take a very different approach when it comes to mapping out the future of mass storage technology. Instead of iterating down, they have decided to go in the opposite direction and looked to solve the problem at the atomic level.
By doing so, the question has changed from, how do we squeeze more data into the same space? to, how few atoms can we use to store a single bit of data? IBM has discovered the answer to that question is 12.
The problem with existing magnetic memory techniques is, as we fit more data into the same space there is more chance the magnetization of one bit will effect its neighbors, therefore destroying the data. Without further precision at the atomic level, we would/will eventually hit a storage density limit due to this problem.
By looking at the problem from the bottom up, IBM figured out how to store one bit of data using the fewest atoms possible, which is just 12 coupled atoms. That’s effectively 100x denser bit storage than hard disk drives use today, and 150x denser than NAND flash memory, but that’s just a starting point and it could end up being much higher. In other words, it paves the way for storage levels to keep increasing, or for the size of the storage devices we use to shrink significantly.
Our sister site ExtremeTech has a much more detailed explanation of how IBM’s research is going to effect data storage in the future. And with current hard disk technology thought to be nearing its limit, this breakthrough should hopefully produce new drives just in time to act as a replacement.
Read more at IBM
0 comments:
Post a Comment