Graphene Could Make Magnetic Memory 1000x Denser 123
KentuckyFC writes "The density of magnetic memory depends on the size of the magnetic domains used to store bits. The current state-of-the-art uses cobalt-based grains some 8nm across, each containing about 50,000 atoms. Materials scientists think they can shrink the grains to 15,000 atoms but any smaller than that and the crystal structure of the grains is lost. That's a problem because the cobalt has to be arranged in a hexagonal close packing structure to ensure the stability of its magnetic field. Otherwise the field can spontaneously reverse and the data is lost. Now a group of German physicists say they can trick a pair of cobalt atoms into thinking they are in a hexagonal close packing structure by bonding them to a hexagonal carbon ring such as graphene or benzene. That's handy because the magnetic field associated with cobalt dimers is calculated to be far more stable than the field in a cobalt grain. And graphene and benzene rings are only 0.5 nm across, a size that could allow an increase in memory density of three orders of magnitude."
Re:More room but---- (Score:5, Informative)
So one day the atoms might just realize that they've been tricked and you'll end up with your computer on fire because your benzene chains have all broken and you end up with 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene
Actually, the explosive yield is greater if you omit the methyl group. Trinitrobenzene out-booms trinitrotoluene, but is harder to handle due to its lower stability.
Great for semicondcutors too (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Not again! (Score:3, Informative)
The Enterprise keeps backups in a protected archive in the computer core. In Contagion [memory-alpha.org], La Forge restores the corrupted memory caused by an Iconian probe by shutting down the computers, wiping the memory, and restoring systems from the protected archives.
Re:Who controls magnetism... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Useless if the speed is the same (Score:2, Informative)
The storage size grows exponentially with its radius.
At a fixed data density (and a fixed number of platters), storage is proportional to the area of the platter, which is proportional to the square of the radius.
Storage size grows quadratically with its radius, not exponentially.
Re:Who controls magnetism... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not again! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not again! (Score:3, Informative)
Long term - my ass! Reliable - bah! Cheap? no.
Hard-drives are surprisingly superior.
Check out the BER on any modern tape and compare it to the BER on any hard disk.
For example -
Current model Seagate Barracuda ES drives - 1x10^-15.
Current model HP LTO drives 1x10^-17.
That's two orders of magnitude better. Furthermore, consumer grade disks which are significantly cheaper (and thus competitive with tape) tend to be an additional order of magnitude worse.
Re:How to fill up the storage? (Score:3, Informative)
You are thinking wrong. Instead of thinking of disk capacities increasing by 3 orders of magnitude, think of disks as shrinking nice and small (1 1/2"), using a lot less power and generating less heat yet being faster and storing twice the data of today's drives. Netbooks with the storage capacity of a large desktop of today.