Physicists from the Delft University of Technology have created an atomic data warehouse
A team of experts from the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) created a data warehouse capable of storing information at the atomic level. Data can be recorded and erased, the device is rewritable. Each atom in the repository represents one bit of information.
The technology, the principle of which scientists have published in the authoritative publication Nature Nanotechnology, allows you to record data with a very high density - about 500 TB per square inch (6.5 cm2). Theoretically, such a cube-shaped data repository with a side length of 0.1 mm can store the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Scientists have already demonstrated a prototype working device with a capacity of 1 KB.
Physicists have been working with single atoms for a quarter of a century now . Not a new idea and subatomic data warehouse. But the implementation of such a project was impossible for a number of reasons, one of which was the lack of necessary technologies. In addition, the atoms of most elements tend to change their location under the influence of positive temperatures. Therefore, scientists took a long time to find the right material and process to identify individual atoms and work with them.
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In the 90s, a group of scientists was able to lay out the word "IBM" from 35 individual xenon atoms. Now the idea has been developed and improved. Instead of xenon, chlorine was taken, and the atoms of this element were placed on a copper substrate.
Scientists have formed a memory cell from an array of rectangular blocks. The size of the array - 12 * 12. Each unit contains chlorine atoms located on a copper substrate. The blocks are not completely filled, there are empty spaces between the chlorine atoms. The combination of these empty spaces and atoms allows you to write data in binary code. Atoms and empty places can be interchanged about as it is done in the “Fifteen.” Thus, the recorded information can be changed or completely erased.
This type of memory consists of blocks with a capacity of 8 bytes. Each block is marked with its own marker that allows you to identify the location of the block on the copper substrate. Changes in location are recorded. Thus, this type of memory can be read and overwritten automatically using atom-sized markers.
This method of recording information has several advantages. One of them is the possibility of using liquid nitrogen instead of liquid helium. In this case, you can work with a temperature not -210 ° C, and -196 ° C. Thus, the cost of maintaining the temperature of liquid nitrogen is slightly lower than the cost of maintaining the temperature of liquid helium. The second advantage is the high reliability of data recording (in comparison with other similar methods). Here, this figure reaches 99%.
How is the data read? The “gaps” between atoms are determined using a powerful tunnel scanning electron microscope. The system receives a “picture”, which is analyzed and translated into a “digit”. The computer shows what is written in the array of chlorine atoms. If it is necessary to rewrite the data, a special command is given, and after 10 minutes the structure of the blocks and atoms changes, at the end of the process the data can be considered written.
The size of the prototype, created by scientists - about 100 nanometers. The size of such an element is 96 * 126 nanometers. Atoms are manipulated using a scanning electron tunnel microscope needle.
So far, the proposed technology is far from commercial use. First, it will be difficult for data centers to work with liquid nitrogen. It is difficult to organize from a technical point of view, plus quite high energy costs for maintaining ultra-low temperatures. In addition, a read or write cycle takes as long as 10 minutes. This is a lot. But scientists say that this is not just a problem, the process can be accelerated to a rate of 1 megabit per second.
Recall that IBM has learned quite a long time to work with individual atoms on a copper substrate. In 2013, our experts shot a whole cartoon, moving molecules (carbon monoxide) in the right places. The result is a video called the Boy and His Atom (A Boy and His Atom).
Each point in the cartoon is a molecule of carbon monoxide, CO. This compound is also called "carbon monoxide". CO molecules are located on the surface of copper. To increase the use of a tunnel electron microscope. As part of the work done, IBM created 242 separate frames, which were then converted into this video. All objects, according to the creators of the cartoon, have been increased 100 million times.
4 people participated in the work, everything was spent about 10 days. In this case, there was no automation, everything was done manually.
This is how the cartoon was created:
The technology, the principle of which scientists have published in the authoritative publication Nature Nanotechnology, allows you to record data with a very high density - about 500 TB per square inch (6.5 cm2). Theoretically, such a cube-shaped data repository with a side length of 0.1 mm can store the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Scientists have already demonstrated a prototype working device with a capacity of 1 KB.
Physicists have been working with single atoms for a quarter of a century now . Not a new idea and subatomic data warehouse. But the implementation of such a project was impossible for a number of reasons, one of which was the lack of necessary technologies. In addition, the atoms of most elements tend to change their location under the influence of positive temperatures. Therefore, scientists took a long time to find the right material and process to identify individual atoms and work with them.
')
In the 90s, a group of scientists was able to lay out the word "IBM" from 35 individual xenon atoms. Now the idea has been developed and improved. Instead of xenon, chlorine was taken, and the atoms of this element were placed on a copper substrate.
Scientists have formed a memory cell from an array of rectangular blocks. The size of the array - 12 * 12. Each unit contains chlorine atoms located on a copper substrate. The blocks are not completely filled, there are empty spaces between the chlorine atoms. The combination of these empty spaces and atoms allows you to write data in binary code. Atoms and empty places can be interchanged about as it is done in the “Fifteen.” Thus, the recorded information can be changed or completely erased.
This type of memory consists of blocks with a capacity of 8 bytes. Each block is marked with its own marker that allows you to identify the location of the block on the copper substrate. Changes in location are recorded. Thus, this type of memory can be read and overwritten automatically using atom-sized markers.
This method of recording information has several advantages. One of them is the possibility of using liquid nitrogen instead of liquid helium. In this case, you can work with a temperature not -210 ° C, and -196 ° C. Thus, the cost of maintaining the temperature of liquid nitrogen is slightly lower than the cost of maintaining the temperature of liquid helium. The second advantage is the high reliability of data recording (in comparison with other similar methods). Here, this figure reaches 99%.
How is the data read? The “gaps” between atoms are determined using a powerful tunnel scanning electron microscope. The system receives a “picture”, which is analyzed and translated into a “digit”. The computer shows what is written in the array of chlorine atoms. If it is necessary to rewrite the data, a special command is given, and after 10 minutes the structure of the blocks and atoms changes, at the end of the process the data can be considered written.
The size of the prototype, created by scientists - about 100 nanometers. The size of such an element is 96 * 126 nanometers. Atoms are manipulated using a scanning electron tunnel microscope needle.
So far, the proposed technology is far from commercial use. First, it will be difficult for data centers to work with liquid nitrogen. It is difficult to organize from a technical point of view, plus quite high energy costs for maintaining ultra-low temperatures. In addition, a read or write cycle takes as long as 10 minutes. This is a lot. But scientists say that this is not just a problem, the process can be accelerated to a rate of 1 megabit per second.
Recall that IBM has learned quite a long time to work with individual atoms on a copper substrate. In 2013, our experts shot a whole cartoon, moving molecules (carbon monoxide) in the right places. The result is a video called the Boy and His Atom (A Boy and His Atom).
Each point in the cartoon is a molecule of carbon monoxide, CO. This compound is also called "carbon monoxide". CO molecules are located on the surface of copper. To increase the use of a tunnel electron microscope. As part of the work done, IBM created 242 separate frames, which were then converted into this video. All objects, according to the creators of the cartoon, have been increased 100 million times.
4 people participated in the work, everything was spent about 10 days. In this case, there was no automation, everything was done manually.
This is how the cartoon was created:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/307336/
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