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    IBM achieves breakthrough in data storage technology, creates world's smallest storage device

    By Amir Iliaifar | Digital Trends – Wed, Jan 18, 2012

    There has been some pretty neat stuff coming out of the IBM camp as of late. Earlier this week we got a glimpse of the company’s plans to further develop battery technology in electric cars. Now it looks like another research and development division at IBM is hard at work pushing the envelope, and expanding computer storage space on an atomic level.

    IBM is calling it Atomic-scale magnetic memory, and it could very well revolutionize the amount of data we are able to store. According to IBM, at its current state, the computer you are working on stores about one bit of data in about 1 million atoms. With IBM research efforts into atomic-scale magnetic memory, one bit of data could only require an array of 12 atoms.

    It all has to do with data density. Being able to increase data density translates directly to how much data can be stored within a given space; in this case we are measuring space in atoms. IBM uses the example of being able to house your entire music and movie collection on a charm-sized pendant around your neck. That’s pretty impressive even by today’s standards when you consider the average size of USB and hard drives — even the smaller ones.

    While the technology isn’t entirely new, IBM has been investigating nanotechnology for over two decades now. The fact that the company is turning its attention towards storage capacity isn’t entirely surprising considering there would be a wide demand both among businesses and consumers.

    How does it work, though? And how were scientists from IBM’s research team able to accomplish such a task? Well it isn’t as confusing as you might imagine. The team at IBM started by creating a tiny storage device by arranging two rows of six iron atoms on a copper nitride surface, by utilizing antiferromagnetism, which occurs when atoms of an opposing magnetic orientation are positioned near one another, researchers were able to program and store IBM’s motto “Think” on the tiny array. The experiment took place at a temperature of absolute zero, but according to IBM would also be viable at room temperatures, which would bump the up the atom count to 150 — still a far cry from 1 million.

    It’s still unclear as to how far off it will be before IBM can successfully offer its technology commercially to consumers, if at all, but it’s still impressive nonetheless. As we delve further into the HD era and the distribution of purely digital content, technology like IBM’s atomic-scale magnetic memory will prove to be quite useful. Besides, how else are we going to store all our favorite Star Trek episodes? 

    This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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    • John
      John  •  New York, New York  •  4 mths ago
      Meanwhile half the country has a problem putting two coherent sentences together.
      • Independent Mindset
        Independent Mindset 4 mths ago
        Or, writing one coherent sentence.
      • val e
        val e 4 mths ago
        @I. M. not so original
      • axle
        axle 4 mths ago
        Beez dat da troof brudda, beez dat da troof. A little humor there.
    • Max the Disturbed Vizsla
      Max the Disturbed Vizsla  •  4 mths ago
      And to think that 80 years ago we were still crapping in outhouses.
      • May Pang Ping Pong
        May Pang Ping Pong 4 mths ago
        Funny !
      • Grid51
        Grid51 4 mths ago
        Hey, I'm only 59 and we had an outhouse when I was very young.
      • WolfRider
        WolfRider 4 mths ago
        Well there are 16 million Homeless that crap in ally ways now.
    • Isa
      Isa  •  Zionsville, Indiana  •  4 mths ago
      This article is factually incorrect - the world's smallest storage device is still a politician's brain.
      • AsSeenOnTv
        AsSeenOnTv 4 mths ago
        I think that would be the most inaccurate storage device is a politician. They never remember what they do wrong, only remember what they do right, and always claim it was the other guys fault. :D
      • HumorGoneWrong
        HumorGoneWrong 4 mths ago
        nothing stored there
      • kevin
        kevin 4 mths ago
        They're brain dead
    • leroyred
      leroyred  •  Tampa, Florida  •  4 mths ago
      Storage is good, how fast it reads the info even better.
      • ironic
        ironic 4 mths ago
        I'm sure IBM thought about that perhaps before you could walk and gurgle as you do now?
    • Bob
      Bob  •  Libertyville, Illinois  •  4 mths ago
      "The experiment took place at a temperature of absolute zero, . . . "

      No, it didn't.
      • MARC
        MARC 4 mths ago
        YES, IT DID!
      • SailorCire
        SailorCire 4 mths ago
        There would be much bigger news if they did get absolute zero...I get the idea, but there should have been some better checking on it.
      • A Yahoo! User 4 mths ago
        FINE "near absolute 0" you a***l retentive nerd
    • Peter
      Peter  •  Oakhurst, California  •  4 mths ago
      At Absolute Zero? How so? Humans have made some things very close to absolute zero but at absolute zero the substance has no energy,electrons cease to move and you would not retrieve your data no?
    • Gambit
      Gambit  •  Huntsville, Alabama  •  4 mths ago
      "The experiment took place at a temperature of absolute zero"

      Absolute zero has never been achieved. If IBM did achieve absolute zero, they made a major breakthrough.
    • Medyo
      Medyo  •  4 mths ago
      And I thought Kim Kardashian had the smallest storage device.
    • Ronnie Cole
      Ronnie Cole  •  Costa Mesa, California  •  4 mths ago
      I'm Still Waiting For The Jetsons Car : - D
    • 88832
      88832  •  4 mths ago
      Now IBM will ship the tech and manufacturing to those wonderful, friendly, patent abiding, Chinese for their review and manufacturing. Sit back and watch.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Shreveport, Louisiana  •  4 mths ago
      Neat!! But WHO CARES????? Can we PLEASE increase battery life a tad? A bit? Somewhat? They can find a way to put a Terrabyte on a single atom for all I care...if the batteries don't improve, then what's the point?
    • Bobby
      Bobby  •  Houston, Texas  •  4 mths ago
      Then you drop your tiny collection of every movie, song, and picture you own because it's the size of a penny and you can't find it anywhere.
    • Heinz
      Heinz  •  Cumming, Georgia  •  4 mths ago
      Once it's out china and india will have afield day pirating the technology.
    • Don
      Don  •  4 mths ago
      The Chinese will steal the technology from IBM and in the process steal more American jobs.
    • Joe Justice
      Joe Justice  •  4 mths ago
      Being an x employee who has an axe to bury, I love how people distort the facts and outright lie.

      The research at IBM is second to none.

      The business practices and behavior of Executive have lost all moral and ethical compass when it comes to treatment of senior employees and the communities in which they operate.

      It has changed from one of the most admired corporation with extremely loyal employees to a chop shop and sadly corrupt Wall Street puppet.

      When Watson family had control it was the greatest environment one could imagine. Not perfect since employees such as management still had flaws but the business practices were to be duplicated and admired and they were one of the greatest assets the USA ever seen. Now they are greedy and fire employees that were loyal and gave their youth to help build its wealth. They did so by stealing the benefits of the hard working employees and lied to them so they could strip pensions and benefits by releasing employees just prior to receiving full retirements with benefits. Thus forcing them to government social security and Medicare as a fall back.
    • jer
      jer  •  4 mths ago
      Human DNA is the world's smallest storage "device," a thimble-full of the stuff could hold the instructions for re-creating every man, woman and child on Earth, all seven billion! That's a lot of data!
    • Bob
      Bob  •  Chicago, Illinois  •  4 mths ago
      When we have the worlds smallers storage device the Japanese will build a case for it...God Bless...
    • LaQuan DeTerian Theodoriu ...
      LaQuan DeTerian Theodoriu ...  •  4 mths ago
      Great. Now freaks will be able to store even more porn in one spot.
    • rk
      rk  •  4 mths ago
      Great, in no time the government will be able to keep a video record of your life, cradle to grave, on a thumb drive. Orwell was a visionary.
    • Ian
      Ian  •  Astoria, Oregon  •  4 mths ago
      But will the knowledge placed on such minute devices be worth storing?
     Post a comment
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