Tiny 'Atomic Memory' Device Could Store All Books Ever Written
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| A scan of atomic storage Photo Credit: Brennanit.com.au |
A new "atomic memory" device that encodes data by atom can store hundreds of times more data than current hard disks can.
As the world generates more data, researchers are seeking ways to store all of that information in as little space as possible. The new atomic memory devices that researchers developed can store more than 500 trillion bits of data per square inch (6.45 square centimeters) — about 500 times more data than the best commercial hard disk currently available, according to the scientists who created the new devices.
The scientists created their atomic memory device using a scanning tunneling microscope, which uses an extremely sharp needle to scan over surfaces just as a blind person would run his or her fingers over a page of braille to read it. Scanning tunneling microscope probes can not only detect atoms, but also nudge them around.
"You would need just the area of a postage stamp to write out all books ever written," said study senior author Sander Otte, a physicist at the Delft University of Technology's Kavli Institute of Nanoscience in the Netherlands.
In fact, the researchers estimated that if they created a cube 100 microns wide — about the same diameter as the average human hair — made of sheets of atomic memory separated from one another by 5 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, the cube could easily store the contents of the entire U.S. Library of Congress.
Source: Live Science
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