Rest and relaxation are said to be essential to oneﾒs well being, but who would have thought that exercise and a little social interaction would lead to a technology breakthrough? Researchers at IBM Corp. recently announced the development of an ultra-dense storage technology that resembles the old computer punch cards except that the perforations are shrunken to a molecular scale.
The conception of this new technology developed under the code name “millipede” didnﾒt take place in the lab as you may think. The idea was actually conceived during a discussion two scientists at IBM’s Zurich research labs were having over beer after the company’s weekly soccer games.
Whatﾒs amazing about the millipede lab prototypes is that they can store as much as 20 times the data of the magnetic storage media used in today’s computers. Try to envision cramming as much as 25 million printed textbook pages of data on a surface the size of a postage stamp and you begin to understand the scale of the technology.
IBM says it has no current plans to begin manufacturing millipede-based storage cards, but if it did the storage could begin replacing the current silicon-based flash memory cards in handheld computers and mobile phones by the end of 2005. This according to project leader, Peter Vettiger, who is one of those who conceived the idea.
Vettiger envisions these devices in the mobile arena and handheld arenas. He confirms that there is strong desire for an increase in storage capacity beyond what flash memory can store. He sums it up by saying that there is a requirement for high storage capacity, low power drain, small size and low cost.
The capacity of the millipede devices is mind boggling. IBM said the millipede devices can store one terabit, or a trillion pieces, of data per square inch. The data is stored in tiny sheets of plastic polymer film as miniscule indentations just 10 nanometers, or millionths of a millimeter, in diameter.
While the millipede may resemble punch cards, unlike punch cards, the new devices are re-writeable, which means they can be erased and refilled over and over. According to Vettiger, IBM’s tests have already erased and refilled them hundreds of thousands of times. And although the millipede is being described as a relative to the primitive punch card, according to its creators the new memory technology is closer in design to the atomic force microscope, invented in 1986 by millipede co-designer Gerd Binnig, the Nobel prize winning co-inventor of the scanning-tunneling microscope.
Another good thing about this exciting breakthrough in storage technology is that it doesn’t appear beset by the data density limits of flash memory chips. This technology will provide the ability to cram 10 to 15 gigabytes of data into a tiny format that would fit in a multifunctional wristwatch. Imagine the possibilities.
Paul Hutton-Ashkenny is the president of Systems Resource Group Ltd. and Bahamas On-Line. Views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of SRG on BOL. Questions/comments to :P.O. Box N3920, Nassau, Bahamas or e-mailed to: info@srg.com.bs.
