News IBM shrinks magnetic storage to just 12 atoms

Not exactly ready for release, though.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2012/01/13/ibm-magnetic-storage-12-atoms/1

 

Hardly a practical working concept is it. More a "we can do something really neat" statement than a proof of concept, especially given the fact that you are essentially talking about superconductor properties.

 

Since when was it claimed that Moore's Law applies to experimental lab based magnetic storage mechanisms? Moore's Law is about transistors (The general understanding anyway).

It's Kryder's Law that applies to hard drives http://bit.ly/xyD1sP so even saying this experiment pushes past said law is stretching things a bit far, seeing as it's 100% impractical to put into practice at the current point in time.

It's a lab trick, like 21 years ago when they wrote IBM in individual atoms http://bit.ly/xpQ1gj. Very clever and a show of what can be done in the lab, but not something mainstream.

 

So at room temperature the storage density is approximately 10x that of current technologies (based on 12 atoms being 100x denser)

Wonder what the speeds of accessing data via this method is - it's almost pointless having all that storage space if it's slower to access than current technologies. Speed has been the biggest focus of late via SSD's, so I feel any technology would have to offer capacity as well as speed benefits. 200TB backup facilities would be fantastic, but it doesn't feel like a step forward for me - it's 2012 and the future of storage is little magnets? That doesn't feel like a new technology - more an optimization of one that's been done to death.

How robust a mechanism really is this?

 

I built myself a compass using antiferromagnets before my trek across the Antarctica, got lost for months going round in circles and getting chased by bleedin polar bears. Bloody eBay.

 

I think you were more lost than you originally thought, there are no polar bears in Antarctica.

 

^^ So much negativity! This is amazing, whether it's applicable to real life right now or not, the sizes they are talking about are ridiculous.
I will be posting this article to my Course Group on Facebook, and i'm sure some of them will be as excited about it as me.
As far as I can see too, this would mean faster access times too, surely if it's more dense, then there's less area to look for data? I don't really know about that sort of thing, so correct me if i'm wrong.

 

I wish they'd hurry up, I want a 1 petabyte 6GB/s HDD by next december!

 

kinda need a 100TB USB stick nowadays.

 

This is IBM we are talking about. If they develop something, they use the tech.

 

Even, if this particular design runs to a commercial dead-end, perhaps some of the concepts and techniques will still provide value in other designs.

 

I think that was the joke - according to the article "antiferromagnets alternate between north-polarisation and south-polarisation" so PingCrosby's home made compass took him to the north pole instead of south.

 

Thank god someone else apart from my psychiatrist understands me.