IBM Creates World’s Smallest Magnetic Storage Device From 12 Atoms
- Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:54pm by
Liz Klimas
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Scanning tunneling microscope image of a byte of data in 8 12-atom increments. (Image: IBM via Wired)
According to IBM, the computer I‘m typed these words on and the computer on which you’re reading them stores just one bit of data on about 1 million atoms.
But now, thanks to a new development by IBM, “12 is the new million.”
According to the company’s website, researchers have created the world’s smallest magnetic storage device. Why? IBM states that while the size of hard drives for computing devices have gotten smaller over the years (see the chart below), technology is reaching its limits of adhering to Moore’s Law, which states “the number of transistors on a microchip will approximately double every two years.”
(Image: IBM)
IBM researchers knew they had to go smaller, but according to Wired, they didn’t know how small they could go for reliable data storage:
String together 8 atoms, for example, and you simply can’t get a stable magnetic state, says Andreas Heinrich, the IBM researcher behind the discovery. “The system will just spontaneously hop from one of those states to another state in a timescale that is too fast for us to claim anything like a data storage [demonstration]. It might be switching 1,000 times per second.”
Watch Heinrich explain more about how the IBM created this device:
But Wired notes a few problems need to be worked out before this ultra-small technology makes it to commercial hard drives:
Well, first off, they operate at 1 degree kelvin. That’s about -458 Fahrenheit. Bump things up to room temperature and Heinrich thinks it would take about 150 atoms per bit.
And there’s an even bigger problem. Nobody has a clue how to build something this small outside of the lab. And certainly, nobody can do it cheaply, Heinrich says. “That is something that many people are working on, but nobody has solved it yet.”
IBM states that once the technology is refined it could be the potential to host an entire music and movie collection on a storage device the size of a charm you could wear around your neck.
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Gumbercules
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 1:01amThank You IBM for spending millions in this technology. Now how about spending a few hundred dollars in helping your employees speak without accents?
Report Post »Predator
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 12:44amI am now completely convinced that the writers at the blaze have succomed to cell phone spell checker failure of life.
Report Post »Makes me sad.
DO BETTER.
Attention2Detail
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:03pmDon’t hold your breath. It could take decades if ever to get this to any usable form at an affordable price. Reminds me of the hype over holographic data storage which lasted for about 20 years. I have yet to see it on the market. Creating the hardware to read and write to 12 atoms at any useful speed is a task that will require technology that has not yet been dreamed of. I worked for IBM for 20 years and had stacks of their Journal of Research. You wouldn’t believe the stuff these guys discover that never amounts to anything. Still, I do think that this will help keep hard drive advances going.
Report Post »lionshield
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 6:14pmYES, this can work ,but you will need to use the nino-plates that you had on you internet-mag.
Report Post »about month ago!! nino-plates have electricial-charge to them that will cause it to be trunning
into a magnetic for this to work for storage on a smaller scale.
Joisey
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:33pmAnd this storage device would be able to hold…..8 bits of information, I am guessing?
Report Post »SweetDoug
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:50amDon’t we all now know that atoms are mainly composed of empty space? You know, the ol’ explanation of “If the centre of the atom was at homeplate, then the electrons would be….”?
Then how come they “look” like little apartment buildings? And are solid? Who knew? And how can we “see” them?
I thinks somebody’s bamboozelling me!
ƥ
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 2:57pmYou obviously don’t know what transmission electron microscopy is or atomic force microscopy. You’re not being bamboozled.. just uneducated
Report Post »RisetovotesiR
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 10:34pmthe atom model is constantly evolving. the latest i’ve heard is their are no neutrons, no orbits, and they look like bubbles. look up new atom model. also electrons are not particles but are like light, and exist where ever you look for them.
Report Post »jmiller_42
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:35amFunny. IBM is operating under Moore’s law, which is the law made up by the founder of IBM’s rival, Intel.
Intel is the company that actually gets products to market. While other companies boast about chips that would only work on Pluto, Intel is starting to bring 3D transistors to market for every day devices.
Still, congrats to IBM.
Report Post »OhioRifleman
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:49amIntel does the low-end stuff and processors, desktop level to some small server hardware. IBM does mostly mainframe-level servers and data storage solutions, they’re mostly out of the desktop hardware market nowadays. I see this doing a lot more for IBM than Intel, since this is a storage concern and not a processing concern.
BTW, never heard of Moore’s Law applying to storage, I thought it was mostly geared to processing.
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 12:36pmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
“The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore’s law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.”
wiki is pretty kool.
as for anyone using anyone elses whatever, it’s not a thang. did you know that there are over 400 learning curves and Boeing came up with the first one?
Report Post »drewder
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:56pmActually Moore’s law refers only to the transistor count and has nothing to do with memory storage. That is Kryder’s Law.
Report Post »burned at edges
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 10:29pmYes Moore’s law has nothing to do with memory storage. Think of it this way…there is not a single transistor on a dvd. With a tight enough powerful beam of light I bet you could use it to split an atom. Now take that beam of light and use it to burn a dvd. IBM new invention is yesterdays news.
Report Post »STEEEEVE53
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:21amGood grief……does anyone proofread ? ” According to IBM, the computer I’M TYPED THESE WORDS ON”………Can my elementary school student get a job writing for The Blaze ?
Report Post »MichiganPatriot
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:46amReally your comment is about spelling. ***TROLL ALERT*** TROLL ALERT***
Report Post »KingCanon
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:41amTwelve (12) is Biblical… Let’s go with it!
Report Post »grannyrecipe
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:29amSo, after this becomes commonplace, what the researchers going to do all day? Eat donuts? Because you aint getting smaller than that I assure you LOL
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 4:00pmIf we can move from this Nano-technology… to the smaller Pico-technology… we can just make Gold; everyone will be Rich; and each of us can buy Everything! Oops… hey, that will not work!
Report Post »RisetovotesiR
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 10:38pmthey can make gold by bombarding lead atoms with helium nucleus, been able to do this for a while, too expensive?
pretty neat.
Report Post »grannyrecipe
Posted on January 15, 2012 at 7:19am11100011001001110010110001011110100101010101010010101001
That’s I think.
Report Post »softunderbelly
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 6:17amThey didn’t say where the lab was located but think about this: The US invents things. The Chinese only MAKE them. Big difference in abilities. No, this doesn‘t mean that the Chinese can’t invent things, it only means that they currently do not have the academic infrastructure to explore ideas at this level. Now, regarding the MAKING of things, given the robotics involved and available in manufacturing why couldn’t we make a lot of the things currently being made in China here in the US?
Report Post »matt1776
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 2:50pmBecause the EPA and the 100,000 page federal register will make it prohibitively expensive to do so.
Report Post »MR_ANDERSON
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 4:29am8 Atoms for 1 Bit of information, I’m glad I saw this article.
I was just inspired to spend the last 5 hours formulating a 30 Atom for over 30 Bytes theory. Unfortunately it can not be made for a long time due to technology available, but I’ll live long enough.
This is why the internet is so amazing, great ideas set loose in freedom will inspire even greater ideas.
Report Post »RisetovotesiR
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:33amwow! you really hate evolution. If you don’t believe in it why care so much? why the anger?
i’m an atheist, i don’t hate yours or anyones god. i don’t believe in them. You don’t believe in natural selection or genetic mutation. i don’t believe in invisible men who send their son(s) here to become zombies. all in an attempt to save us, from an eternity in a hell the invisible man made for us, because he loves us.
however evolution is a crazy theory?
Report Post »caleejr
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:37pmwhat’s evolution have to do with storage devices?
Report Post »caleejr
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:37pmthat comment was for @RISETOVOTESIR
Report Post »Imsoright
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:55pmSo your faith is atheism, you don’t believe in invisible men (you mean God?), who send their son (son’s) here to be zombies (you mean Jesus, who had free will just like us?), in an attempt to save us (he was here to deliver the (“Truth”) word of God), from an eternity in a hell that the invisible man (God) made for us (God made hell for Lucifer and his fallen angles), because he loves us (Wow, you actually got one right, congratulations!). Keep your day job, you aren’t very good at this!
Report Post »RisetovotesiR
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 10:11pmthe post i was replying to must have been deleted or reported. it was offensive.
however, which did i get right however?, I count four zombies at least in the bible, more than one invisible man, and many people filled with faith and not facts. great science debate.
the fact one can make a hard drive out of 12 atoms is evidence of evolution, not that my opinion matters to you god fearing patriots.
Report Post »MrObvious
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:45pmLooks like moors law will live on awhile longer yet.
Report Post »Sizes get smaller, processing power and storage capacity go up.
We may not have 8 atom drives anytime soon; but, there’s now a new goal post for the materials engineers to chase after.
Chuck Stein
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 1:40amYup, the “sunset provision” for Moore’s Law has been postponed. Cool.
Report Post »sn000zey
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 9:59pmYES and Science Moves ON!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 9:25pmWhich Atoms… are they using?
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:38pman electron maybe?
Report Post »brickmoon
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 11:22pmThey used iron atoms.
How…unexpected…incongruous…implausible…? Nope, can’t think of a word to describe it.
Report Post »poweruser19
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 1:59amI think they said silicon
Report Post »brickmoon
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:26amI’ve read that silicon atoms have been used in atomic scale memory experiments as far back as 2002, but according to articles on sites like Popular Science and MIT’s Technology Review, IBM used iron atoms in this instance.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:26amand how are they goeing to “connect” these together….wire or “paths” are also made of atoms..\ An atom of wire will be used to commect these to the rest of the system..LOL .
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