Magnetic hard drives go atomic - Storing data on a single atom - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]Chop a magnet in two, and it becomes two smaller magnets. Slice again to make four. But the smaller magnets get, the more unstable they become; their magnetic fields tend to flip polarity from one moment to the next. Now, however, physicists have managed to create a stable magnet from a single atom. The team, who published their work in Nature on 8 March, used their single-atom magnets to make an atomic hard drive. The rewritable device, made from 2 such magnets, is able to store just 2 bits of data, but scaled-up systems could increase hard-drive storage density by 1,000 times, says Fabian Natterer, a physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, and author of the paper. “It’s a landmark achievement,” says Sander Otte, a physicist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. “Finally, magnetic stability has been demonstrated undeniably in a single atom.” Inside a regular hard drive is a disk split up into magnetized areas — each like a tiny bar magnet — the fields of which can point either up or down. Each direction represents a 1 or 0 — a unit of data known as a bit. The smaller the magnetized areas, the more densely data can be stored. But the magnetized regions must be stable, so that ‘1’s and ‘0’s inside the hard disk do not unintentionally switch Current commercial bits comprise around 1 million atoms. But in experiments physicists have radically shrunk the number of atoms needed to store 1 bit — moving from 12 atoms in 2012 to now just one. Natterer and his team used atoms of holmium, a rare-earth metal, sitting on a sheet of magnesium oxide, at a temperature below 5 kelvin. Holmium is particularly suitable for single-atom storage because it has many unpaired electrons that create a strong magnetic field, and they sit in an orbit close to the atom's centre where they are shielded from the environment. This gives holmium both a large and stable field, says Natterer. But the shielding has a drawback: it makes the holmium notoriously difficult to interact with. And until now, many physicists doubted whether it was possible to reliably determine the atom’s state.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.nature.com/news/magnetic-hard-drives-go-atomic-1.21599[/url]

cool, 6.022x10^23 bits per mole of holmium

The scientists say that storage can be boosted up to 1,000 times its storage capacity. Currently the biggest drive on offer is a 60 TB, so this means a total of 60,000 TB of storage. Holy shit.

At one point, storage capacity will be pretty obsolete, even for hobbyist working with 3D simulations, right?

i'd like to have all the music on my phone Just all the music

Cool accomplishment but not something that will be commercial, considering just how volatile it is a stray week B field would change its state unless this thing has some sort of hysteresis curve.

[QUOTE=Lazore;51953786]At one point, storage capacity will be pretty obsolete, even for hobbyist working with 3D simulations, right?[/QUOTE] For home users, sure, but that's just one market.

[QUOTE=Lazore;51953786]At one point, storage capacity will be pretty obsolete, even for hobbyist working with 3D simulations, right?[/QUOTE] idk, I remember 10 years ago thinking "no one could ever possibly use 1TB of storage capacity"

[QUOTE=Judas;51953831]idk, I remember 10 years ago thinking "no one could ever possibly use 1TB of storage capacity"[/QUOTE] Yep, and here I am building a freenas box with 16tb raw and I find myself wanting more.

[QUOTE=Lazore;51953786]At one point, storage capacity will be pretty obsolete, even for hobbyist working with 3D simulations, right?[/QUOTE] tbh I could honestly see triple a games being around 1tb maybe 30 years in the future

yeah but 5 degrees above absolute zero, that's going to be a pain to keep steady / consta

For those interested in commercialized, cutting-edge storage, look up [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroelectric_RAM"]Ferroelectric RAM[/URL] or [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoresistive_random-access_memory"]Mangetoresistive RAM[/URL]. Both are non-volatile.

[QUOTE=Judas;51953831]idk, I remember 10 years ago thinking "no one could ever possibly use 1TB of storage capacity"[/QUOTE] This was back when people were more modest about how much porn they consume

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;51953794]Cool accomplishment but not something that will be commercial, considering just how volatile it is a stray week B field would change its state unless this thing has some sort of hysteresis curve.[/QUOTE] There is also the issue that these high density drives will be really damn slow, more dense the platters the harder it is to find the data quickly on them. At most I can see this tech being used to make mechanical drives physically smaller, the 2.5" HDD market can always do with more storage size, max really is just 1TB on 2.5" currently.

[QUOTE=Reagy;51953886]There is also the issue that these high density drives will be really damn slow, more dense the platters the harder it is to find the data quickly on them. At most I can see this tech being used to make mechanical drives physically smaller, the 2.5" HDD market can always do with more storage size, max really is just 1TB on 2.5" currently.[/QUOTE] Eh, the 2tb 2.5's work fine, they're just a bit slow

I mean storage needs tend to stay fairly flat, moreso than computing power, because the content we consume grows as our ability to store it has. An AAA game maybe took up 30MB back when we had 1GB drives (as an example), but since we've now got a TB drive it takes up 30GB in order to store less-compressed textures, more optimized executables, etc.

[QUOTE]Chop a magnet in two, and it becomes two smaller magnets. [/QUOTE] Magnet win every time

I have found a rare picture of the element they used to make the magnet. Trust me I'm a chemist. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ojSGtZ1.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=matt000024;51953842]tbh I could honestly see triple a games being around 1tb maybe 30 years in the future[/QUOTE] GTA XV is a 1:1 re-creation of California.

Imagine this partnered with some method of downloading that uses particle entanglement and it results in 0 ping. Valve will have to fix Hitreg then.

[QUOTE=Timof2009;51954049]Imagine this partnered with some method of downloading that uses particle entanglement and it results in 0 ping. Valve will have to fix Hitreg then.[/QUOTE] Hate to break it to you but that's not how entaglement works

[QUOTE=Instant Mix;51954067]Hate to break it to you but that's not how entaglement works[/QUOTE] ssssssssssh, it could happen. We will find a way for Ansible.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;51953765]The scientists say that storage can be boosted up to 1,000 times its storage capacity. Currently the biggest drive on offer is a 60 TB, so this means a total of 60,000 TB of storage. Holy shit.[/QUOTE] [t]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/DataTNG.jpg[/t] Some day, maybe

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;51953765]The scientists say that storage can be boosted up to 1,000 times its storage capacity. Currently the biggest drive on offer is a 60 TB, so this means a total of 60,000 TB of storage. Holy shit.[/QUOTE] Still not enough for my porn.

[QUOTE=matt000024;51953842]tbh I could honestly see triple a games being around 1tb maybe 30 years in the future[/QUOTE] I remember my dad flipping about how huge Half-Life 1 was in 1999 (it was like 500MB, our hard drive was probably 2GB). Today, DOOM, for example was close to 60GB

[QUOTE=Kylel999;51954205]I remember my dad flipping about how huge Half-Life 1 was in 1999 (it was like 500MB, our hard drive was probably 2GB). Today, DOOM, for example was close to 60GB[/QUOTE] 100*

I'm just thinking about all the footage I could edit. Now all I need is a $51,000 Arri Alexa so I can shoot ridiculous resolutions. [editline]13th March 2017[/editline] 10Gb 4K files no problem.

[QUOTE=matt000024;51953842]tbh I could honestly see triple a games being around 1tb maybe 30 years in the future[/QUOTE] that'd better be a good fucking game otherwise it just becomes and excuse not to optimize storage consumption.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;51953765]The scientists say that storage can be boosted up to 1,000 times its storage capacity. Currently the biggest drive on offer is a 60 TB, so this means a total of 60,000 TB of storage. Holy shit.[/QUOTE] But the internet providers tell me copper cables are fast enough still??

[QUOTE=matt000024;51953842]tbh I could honestly see triple a games being around 1tb maybe 30 years in the future[/QUOTE] I don't think it will take that long. 30 years ago the average PC game was easily small enough to fit on one floppy disk. The original Legend of Zelda is 30 years old and was about 64kb. Today some games are 60+GB. (44,000 floppy disks)