Scientist Uses Nanodots To Create 4Tb Storage Chip 207
arcticstoat writes "Solid state disks could soon catch up with mechanical hard drives in terms of cost and capacity, thanks to a new data-packed chip developed by a scientist at the University of North Carolina. Using a uniform array of 10nm nanodots, each of which represents a single bit, Dr. Jay Narayan created a data density of 1 terabit per square centimeter. The end result was a 4cm2 chip that holds 4Tb of data (512GB), but the university says that the nanodots could have a diameter of just 6nm, enabling an even greater data density. The university explains that the nanodots are 'made of single, defect-free crystals, creating magnetic sensors that are integrated directly into a silicon electronic chip.' Dr. Narayan says he expects the technology overtaking traditional solid state disk technology within the next five years."
How long... (Score:5, Interesting)
...until I can get a decent (120GB+) sized SSD that doesn't cost as much as a new video card?
Disks? (Score:3, Interesting)
Solid state disks could soon catch up with mechanical hard drives[...]Dr Narayan says he expects the technology overtaking traditional solid state disk technology within the next five years.
Is shape important in Solid State? It almost seems as if the article is confusing Hard Disk Drives with Solid State Drives.
Re:Wow (Score:1, Interesting)
If it works, why optimize it?
To make it quicker. You may think that you have 1 GB of RAM available and a 2GHz CPU, but the L2 cache in a modern processor will only hold about 4MB--fetching data or insns from main memory might require as much as 100 CPU cycles. And that's before considering virtual memory, which requires millions of cycles to access.
Re:Not a "chip", merely a "chip". (Score:3, Interesting)
> Let'sLet's use something a tad faster...please?
They'll put a transisitor over each dot and couple it to the dot in some way so that it can be read and written. Then they'll add a matrix of metallization and logic to multiplex access to the transistors. Add decoding logic and drivers and you've got nonvolatile RAM. And your bit density has gone down by an order of magnitude or so. Still very useful, though, if it's fast enough. Nonvolatile RAM with densities and speeds similar to those of DRAM would be a real breakthrough. Add costs per GB similar to those of rotating media and you've got something that will fundamentally change computing.