Nickel Sensors Could Raise Hard Disk Capacity 198
Makarand writes "Tiny filaments of nickel, thinner than a wavelength of visible light, acting as magnetic
sensors may expand the storage capacity of hard disks many times. Although, technologies
exist to increase hard disk capacity, reading data bits reliably from such disks has proven
difficult because as data bits become smaller their magnetic fields are weaker and difficult
to pick up. Nickel filaments are capable of picking up of these weak magnetic fields
using a phenomenon called "ballistic magnetoresistance" which is not completely understood.
As the sensors are only a few atoms wide the electrons travel along a straight line
in the conductor greatly enhancing the binary signal picked up from the data bits.
These sensors could also be used to detect biomolecules in low concentrations."
Bloody hell. (Score:3, Funny)
Is it just me or are we getting too clever?
Soon we'll be storing gigabytes on a single atom...
or even better (Score:2)
Re:or even better (Score:2)
Coulombs (Score:2)
Re:Coulombs (Score:2)
T = N / (A * m) , or T = N / (C * m/s )
So no, that's utterly wrong. It is not even dimensionally correct.
Re:Bloody hell. (Score:2)
Spin states (Score:4, Informative)
Is it wise ? (Score:4, Insightful)
To store critical (or any data of some value ie: not junk) data on technology that is so vunurable to external forces if the technology is so small/fragile ?
wouldnt it be better to concentrate on more reliable rather than greater storage ?
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:4, Insightful)
I suspect, if this technology ever makes it to market, it'll be in a package that keeps it nice and safe.
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:2)
I head crashed a MicroDrive with a stern look.
The Magnum?
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:5, Interesting)
1) So what's so unreliable about current storage? Disks can and do eventually die, but so do ***ALL*** mechanical devices. The magnetic lifespan of a disk is not clearly the limiting factor in the life of a hard drive. Half of the drives I replace die as a fail to spin up properly--not something we like to see, but an indication that the short life of the magnetic states aren't the most unreliable part of a hard drive.
2) I don't see any indication that this is 'fragile' technology, on the macroscopic scale. Sure the signals are smaller, but once you reliably detect them they can be amplified ad nauseum, and reliable detection is what this is all about.
3) Large scale enterprise storage in our current realm of thinking, requires high speed access and high reliability, and does NOT involve single drives. Hardware RAID5, RAID 1+0, RAID 5+0 (I've seen it done!) etc. is the way to get high reliability and high performance. Having a single hard drive, even one that's 100% reliable, isn't a reasonable storage solution for mission critical data, and so consequently there's not a lot of demand for a 100% reliable hard drive.
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:2)
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:2)
I mean 100% reliable. A theoretical 100% reliable. Data will never go sour or get corrupted. Ever.
In that mythical case, it's still not a good storage solution. 100% data reliability doesn't factor in a bomb or a fire. Nor does it factor in the potential of a power loss (which might not affect reliability, but will affect availability), or for that matter, the limit of a single connection to the computer.
My point is that there are many reasons for using multiple hard drives in multiple cabinets OTHER than just reliability.
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:5, Funny)
There was a brief time a few decades ago when the essence of my entire being was contained in a single molecule, with no backups! Luckily, I made it through that episode relatively unscathed.
Ever since then, I've been making backups like crazy.
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:5, Funny)
Ever since then, I've been making backups like crazy.
I'm yet to make any fully redundant backups myself as opposed to your incremental ones, however I fear there may have %50 data loss in any such backups and the data space will have to be shared with someone elses.
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is it wise ? (Score:2)
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my mother for my mitochondria, and to thank my wife for providing my kids with mitochondria, since Dad and I (and males in general) can't be bothered with such picky little details...
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Then how do we know they're there?
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
-Berj
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
Ballistic? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ballistic? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ballistic? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ballistic? (Score:2)
Re:Ballistic? (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope IBM don't have anything to do with this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I hope IBM don't have anything to do with this. (Score:1)
Re:I hope IBM don't have anything to do with this. (Score:4, Informative)
My 60GXP in my Tivo keeps on tickin' (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I hope IBM don't have anything to do with this. (Score:2)
IBM, Seagate et. all sell to their markets - it'll be a while before priorities change.
Advances in storage technology (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Advances in storage technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Back when computers were akin to our old 1-cell relatives, it didn't take much to have a serious jump in usefulness. But now that they (and we) are vastly more complicated, significant improvements in individual aspects of the technology don't seem to affect the whole system as much, so they seem so much less exciting.
As I see it, progress is going to be coming more and more in small steps, taking much longer to affect a huge change.
But please, feel free to prove me wrong, I'd love to see the kind of jumps in usefulness that compters experienced back in the 80's.
Re:Advances in storage technology (Score:1)
Re:Advances in storage technology (Score:2)
You see, the automobile and aircraft belong to the set of all transportation - which is what you should be comparing computing to - so when one form of transportation seems to have hit a plateau, another form always picks up where the former left off. What you end up with is a series of overlapping S-curves which underlies the overall exponential increase in progress. It's this pattern [kurzweilai.net] which you should be aware of.
Legpower -> Horsepower -> Railroad -> Automobile -> Airplane -> Jetliner -> Chemical Rocket -> Ion Propulsion -> FTL. Speed and capability increasing exponentially...
Same with computing:
Electromechanical -> Relay -> Vacuum Tubes -> Transistor -> ICs -> building 3D circuits instead of 2D -> etc.
--
Re:Advances in storage technology (Score:2)
What do you mean?
On the sixth day (1986), God created a computer in his image.
The Amiga.
*cough* (Score:2)
Re:Advances in storage technology (Score:3, Informative)
There is no real marketing benefit to describing the real tech behind such devices, only assigning them buzzwords and hyping them up, so you only see stupid buzzwords.
The computer industry is actually very good about getting major advances in the hands of consumers on a time scale measured in months after the practical advances are made.
New HD technology! (Score:4, Funny)
Of course (Score:3, Funny)
Phhh. I knew that and I'm not even American...
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Of course (Score:2)
I suppose that idea also works with the time diminishing Hard Drive warranties we seem to be getting now.
the speed? (Score:2, Insightful)
Shouldn't more reasearch be made into solid state memory? I'm not a big fan of hard drive noises and grinding... but hey any research is good research
Re:the speed? (Score:1)
IBM's M.O. (Score:1)
Now how long will it be before Steve Jobs comes along, flirts with the CEO of IBM and steals everything only to have Bill Gates come along and steal it off him...
going ballistic (Score:2)
Now the term "going ballistic" has a whole new meaning!
This sounds cool though, sounds like Moore's law will keep moving along...
New sensation (Score:5, Insightful)
Though the data storage application could certainly serve to fund the development and popularisation of this technology, it seems possible that in the long term the quoted "secondary" application may actually be the primary one. If the device can be tuned to detect virtually anything, it has obvious applications in industrial processes, bomb detection, and so on. This is incremental to existing efforts in these areas.
However, if it can be further trained to distinguish, it essentially amounts to an electronic "sense of smell". This is very exciting and has innumerable applications, especially in combination with other sensor devices and realtime feedback mechanisms involving both software and hardware.
A hypothetical consumer application might be to control the temperature that a bread product is grilled at, bringing it to a perfect (and user-selectable) stated of brownness, while turning down the heat in individual spots at the slightest hint of burning. Wonderful development
Re:New sensation (Score:2)
How fitting that you should mention that, given your nick.
Reading works, but writing? (Score:1)
Cool.. (Score:5, Funny)
Last time a drive failed on me, I made it go ballistic too, and it offered little resistance (however the concrete offered considerable resistance). Is this a similar thing?
Not fully understood (Score:2)
If this works, in a production environment when it exposed to certain radiation, radio signals, heat/cold, etc it not, will be dangerous to rely in that kind of things.
"It's Magic!" is ok for childrens, but not if you want do to something serious.
I disagree (Score:2)
"It's Magic!" is ok for childrens, but not if you want do to something serious.
I hereby declare this technology sufficiently advanced!
Doesn't matter (Score:2, Informative)
see: http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/wwwr_thinkresea
under storing information for info on pushing this limit
Re:Doesn't matter (Score:2)
The link is to:
An article about IBM research [ibm.com]
- Peter
*hyperbole
Re:Doesn't matter (Score:2)
Dude...that explains NY. Too many humans crammed together and they just start spontaneously flipping each other off.
I bet the boys as Inco are happy to hear this (Score:2)
What gets me.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Or rather, you can trade one for the other. I was shocked to find people selling 10k rpm 36GB for 80 or 90 bucks the other day. I imagine that IDE is even cheaper.
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
-Paul Komarek
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
Re:What gets me.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Furthermore, I did destructive testing on a smaller unit (32MB) to get a sense of how accurate that 1M write cycle number is, since it did worry me for a bit. 1% of the write locations (byte sized) failed after 200k writes, going up to 2% at 500k, skyrocketing
So you're right in that this isn't necessarily feasible for a standard PC. On the other hand, with different usage patterns, you could easily just use a RAM disk. A good sized linux installation is reasonable in 2GB; this is under a thousand dollars in compact flash, with direct compact flash to IDE adapters. 2GB of ram, likewise, is only a few hundred dollars. On boot, make a ramdisk. Only write back to flash if you get nervous; or do it once an hour, and last a century. (Note also that most IDE drivers do bad sector remapping; it's not ideal, because it uses 512B blocks instead of the 1B blocks that flash actually fails in, but it's zero modification to existing code.) Needless to say, it would be more expensive than normal to build a computer this way, but it really wouldn't be off the scale.
Re:What gets me.. (Score:2)
I presume you know of mini-itx.com. They're great, if you're looking for wacky case ideas. For a simply case, though, I'd really consider going down to your neighborhood metal shop or carpenter, and just showing him what you need. I think the epia's are particularly suited to a wood case, and it's certainly simpler or cheaper. Consider the metal mesh for radio shielding, if you care about such things; evcen in a sealed, non-head-conductive box, heating is no problem for at least 72 hours (haven't tested longer totally sealed). I recommend some ventilation holes, of course. The commercial cases seem great, but they're all designed for people who need disk drives. If you don't, it's probably more than you want.
The other note is that low-profile ram is available for just a buck or two extra and, at least in my configuration, the ram is the highest point besides PCI cards. Again, if you're using a cf adapter, that may or may not be the case. For PCI cards, you can use a right-angle adapter to reduce total height. You can also get a two-pci-slot adapter (right-angle), which gives you two full slots. I'm not using one currenty, but I tested two 8-serial-port cards at once, and they worked gorgeously.
I've never been as happy with an x86 machine, in terms of reliability and efficiency, as I am with the epia, and I highly recommend getting one to play with, especially at the price. And you get to laugh at everyone who talks about quieter fans and insultation to make a quiet pc... 0dB is nothing to sneer at.
Am I the only one (Score:2)
Too small for my liking (Score:1)
All I Want... (Score:1)
What about performance? (Score:2, Interesting)
Microscopic $/MB is great, but only if you use all those megabytes.
Re:What about performance? (Score:2)
If you understand corporate accounting, you'll realize how badly this sucks... Making existing drives faster and more reliable is what I need - not bigger.
I have a problem with this (Score:2)
'a phenomenon called "ballistic magnetoresistance" which is not completely understood'
Now, would you trust your data to a phenomenon that is not completely understood? I know I wouldn't
Dude (Score:2)
Tim
Re:I have a problem with this (Score:2)
Technobabble! (Score:2, Funny)
June 2003: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Ferrous Multipliers*!
January 2004: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Quantum Isolators*!
June 2004: Scientists have found they can dramatically increase hard drive capacity using *Magneto Flux Capacitors*!
Great, Just Freaking Great..... (Score:5, Insightful)
The ironic thing is I've got five 5.25" full height 9GB SCSIs that are 10+ years old and they work PERFECTLY!
Before increasing capacity, I'd rather see them increase RELIABILITY. I don't care what they specs say about MTBF. I want real world reliability because I am tired of restoring or having to recover failing drives.
Re:Great, Just Freaking Great..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Any properly treated <= 10k RPM SCSI disk drive you get today will likely last just as long. Also, if it's still working after three years, it'll likely be working after six. You'll find almost all the defects in the first 18 months. It's should be no surprise that cheap IDE disks will be less reliable than the more expensive high quality SCSI disks. They're not just more expensive because of industry colusion. The extra quality costs more to manufacture. Considering that the upgrade cycle for x86 PCs has been less than 2 years for 5 years or so, can you blame the hard drive manufactures for being cheap when a very small percentage of their customers will care?
We need solid-state HD's! (Score:5, Insightful)
What we do need is faster access/read times, and an easy way to get that is a solidstate HD. Not a huge amount of storage, maybe about 5-10 gigs worth. Enough to hold the OS and commonly used apps. With RAM prices as low as they are now, where are these things?! I want nano-second access times, not miliseconds! Imagine booting your computer in 3 seconds. Now that would be progress.
SSD != RAM (Score:2)
As for corporate machines, they would probably rather boot their machines from a always-on server which can hold the most common programs in a ramdisk anyway, and simply take the penalty of loading them to ram from disk on the few occasions when the server reboots.
Kjella
Re:We need solid-state HD's! (Score:2)
Nope, won't help your boot time -- but who reboots anymore? Laptops have uptimes measure in months -- even whey they're being carried around during the day.
Re:We need solid-state HD's! (Score:2)
Bah. My Commodore 64 was doing that 15 years ago. And it used ROM. I've never lost my copy of the C64 OS.
Re:We need solid-state HD's! (Score:2)
What about colorizing the bits? (Score:2)
It strikes me that there MIGHT be a way to do this in the magnetic world, but I really am not well informed on this topic. Who knows, maybe it's already being done. Enlightening information would be appreciated.
I guess the real point of my post is that adding more density to the drives isn't the only way to increase storage.
Re:What about colorizing the bits? (Score:2)
However, DVD-R already existed in larger sizes and had some sort of standard, so the tech flowed in that direction.
Optical storage is following the same path as hard drives, though. Increases in rotational capacity (52x CD-ROM's), information density (higher wavelengths/tighter tracks) and finally alternate methods of storing the data itself, such as your idea.
Re:What about colorizing the bits? (Score:3, Informative)
What about... (Score:3, Interesting)
World-changing news! (Score:2)
A lead researcher on the team is quoted as saying: "Yes, this means that current developmental trends will continue..." while another: "We really thought we'd reached the end, but, with this, we can continue revolutionizing the world just like we did last year!"
In other news, the sun is due to rise again tomorrow sometime in the morning....
Fluid Dynamic Bearings...and washingmachine drives (Score:2, Informative)
I was just checking out a drive by western digital yesterday with FDB...a 160Gig unit. I think it was about a buck a gig, and I would assume much more reliable than my current lowly 30Gig and 20Gig drives...
ahhh...progress...
Hell, I remember being able to work on those REAL hard disk drives. You know, the cartridge ones. Roughly 15 inches in diameter...placed on a unit that stands up to your waist...with a reader arm as big around as my thumb that juts in and out like a pogostick....
Yeah, those were the days. Those drives are still usefull for the sake of basic electronics study though...makes it nice so that the students can see teh inner workings of a disk drive. I think they only stored like 8 Megabytes....maybe less.
Big deal! (Score:2)
Whenever I was at the arcade or Bugsy's Subs, and I lost my last man playing Berzerk [24.128.235.130], the machine would say "coin detected in pocket!" If we had working quarter sensors back in the 80s, then what's the big deal with nickel sensors now?
Girls (Score:2, Funny)
Then again, I'm slacking on that end, among others....
This could be applied in other ways too (Score:2, Insightful)
Running a PC or a 1U web server on a single hard disk is making for an awfully large failure point if it dies--it's the least replaceable component cause of data loss and they die a lot. Introducing redundancy at this level could help a lot with that issue (and help high density multicomputer serving become more reliable and fault tolerant)
Brian
"Ballistic Magnetoresistance?" (Score:3, Funny)
"Ballistic Magnetoresistance?" I thought that was the resistance offered by the magnetic platters when I use my .45 to read-protect my drive from the FBI/BSA/MS.
Giant, Colossal... Ballistic? (Score:3, Funny)
Geez. They might as well have named it obese magnetoresistance. Ballistic my ass.
Re:An Open Source Solution? (Score:1)
Re:An Open Source Solution? (Score:2)
Re:An Open Source Solution? (Score:1)
Re:Don't need it. (Score:1)
Re:Don't need it. (Score:1)
1.Just had a quick look at my Icewind Dale game box: Requires 800 MB free disk space.
2.Even compressed MPEG2 video streams run to almost 1Gb per hour.. How would I make a VCD (to play on the DVD player) out of my home video?
3.Lastly, Windows XP Pro, installed, takes around 1Gb of space (omg.. that's just ridiculous.. someone shoot me for using XP, I _must_ be a terrorist)