March 31, 2006 1:25PM  |
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“The tools are now in place to do additional atomic-scale research that could lead to breakthroughs in data storage on desktop devices,” said Andreas Heinrich of IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. “It may be possible to supersede Moore’s Law, although it will require more experimentation using tight controls.”
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 Researchers at IBM have developed a new technique for controlling magnetism at its fundamental, atomic level, a breakthrough that IBM claims could lead to new forms of data storage and even to microscopic computers.”We can now position atoms and then measure and control their magnetic interactions within precisely designed structures,” said Andreas Heinrich of IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. “This will enable us to explore data storage and computation on an entirely new scale,” he said.
The new method relies on a technology called “spin-excitation spectroscopy.” Central to this new strategy is a special microscope that can generate magnetic fields up to 140,000 times stronger than the earth’s pull, Heinrich explained. The researchers manipulate the atoms into position with the microscope and then measure the interactions between their atomic spins — the fundamental source of magnetism. In their experiments, the scientists created chains of atoms and measured how the magnetic properties changed as each new atom was added. They discovered that chains consisting of an even number of atoms had no net magnetism, while chains with an odd number of atoms showed net magnetism. Heinrich said the new technique — which essentially parallels the binary model of modern computer processors — could be used to push the limits of data storage and eventually could enable computer devices that are built on an atomic scale.
A few years ago, IBM made a similar breakthrough that included an arrangement of molecules that formed a working computer circuit some 260,000 times smaller than a conventional silicon design, or about 50 years of circuit-shrinking at the pace of Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law is a prediction made by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip would double every 18 months. “The tools are now in place to do additional atomic-scale research that could lead to breakthroughs in data storage on desktop devices,” Heinrich said. “It may be possible to supersede Moore’s Law, although it will require more experimentation using tight controls.” The research also shows potential for quantum computing, a technology that is still in its early stages but promises to offer similar breakthroughs in data processing, encryption , and other highly complex, computational tasks that require significant processing power. |
