General / Off-Topic The ultimate roadblock?

[Robin of Spiritwood]

According to this article, researchers in University of Alberta have achieved atomic scale memory engineering for data storage.

Atomic-scale memories

We used HL combined with HR to create two different working atomic-scale memories (Fig. 4). We defined a bit with four lattice sites, giving a one atom buffer between neighboring DBs (Fig. 1a). Due to the ideal geometry of the hydrogen-passivated Si(100)-2×1 surface, this arrangement yields an extremely high bit density of 1.70 bits per nm2. Conservatively, estimating a 20% reduction in storage density to integrate practical control architecture, this system still provides the highest density solid-state storage medium available.

It's probably not likely to appear as archive storage for awhile, but it's stable at room temperature. The read/write functions are slow at the moment, but that can get optimized going forward.

The 40 million song library of iTunes can be held on a coin sized disc, using this tech. It's going to save a lotta space.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

That's really interesting!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I want a SSD of 1 petabyte !

 

[OnePercent]

The more important question, how many read and write cycles can it handle? and if so does that degrade the materials involved over time?

 

[Zeeman]

Fascinating. Not roadblock, I don't thing, just the next step.

Z...