SEARCH:
Sign in | Join | Help
search Mercola.com
 
FREE Subscription 
The World’s Most Popular Natural Health Newsletter
Next Revolution in Memory Could Radically Change Your Life

In an experimental IBM physics lab, Stuart S. P. Parkin is working on an invention that could increase the amount of data stored on a chip or a hard drive by a factor of 100, in the same amount of space.

Parkin has already made seemingly impossible feats become reality. He is the mind behind the huge increases in digital storage made possible by giant magnetoresistance, or GMR.

This is the technology that made iPods and Google-style data centers come to life.

The new technology, dubbed "racetrack memory," involves standing billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip. An electric current then slides tiny magnets along each of the wires to be written and read as digital ones and zeros.

The magnets move along the wires at speeds greater than 100 meters a second, which makes it possible to read and write magnetic regions far faster than existing storage technologies.

Racetrack memory has the potential to surpass flash memory chips and computer hard disks. If it succeeds, it will actually take microelectronics into the third dimension, negating the two-dimensional limits of Moore’s Law, which says that the possible number of transistors on a silicon chip doubles roughly every 18 months.

Further, the storage capacity of racetrack memory would make a "disk drive on a chip" possible, while allowing consumers to carry a college library’s worth of data on a small, portable device.

New York Times September 11, 2007



Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Nearly five years ago I made some very astounding predictions regarding next-generation memory storage, and its implications. It looks like those predictions are soon going to come true.

I'm quite fond of quoting Moore's Law, a popular axiom that predicts the doubling of the number of transistors per integrated circuit every 18 months, coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965.

Moore's observation -- now over 40 years old -- still holds up, and many experts, including Moore, believed his law would continue to do so for the next two decades. Just last week, however, he felt that the law named after him may only work for another 10 to 15 years. It is unclear if Moore has heard of this new technology, but now it appears that Parkin’s "racetrack memory" could surpass this well-accepted theory by a landslide.

Imagine being able to carry an entire college library’s worth of data with you in your pocket, or even in your wristwatch.

It’s simply astounding.

All the while, the products of human creativity grow only arithmetically, whereas the capacity to store and distribute them increases geometrically. It’s so exciting to think of what the human imagination will come up with. 

The possibilities are endless!


Related Links:



Comment on This Article Community Comments (17)
 
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
Amazing.  Benjamin Franklin is smiling from above.

 
samurai
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 4/2007
samurai  
Replied

Patty D
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2007
Patty D  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
Smiling or crying? lol


Phantom O Banjo
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 9/2006
Phantom O Banjo  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
I am going to tie a string to my I-pod and hang it out the window!  :)

 
 
 
Posted On Sep 14, 2007
First, the link provided to "I made some very astounding predictions" does not work.  Just a heads up.

Second, this isn't surprising at all if one has been following the memory trends over the last 40 years.  Moore's Law--- that memory will double every 18 months--- has been going like clockwork since the 1960s.  This latest advance is no big deal.  A few years from now, you'll have enough memory on your iPod to save every piece of music ever written in the history of humanity.  That is not an exaggeration.  A few years from that date, you'll have enough memory to save every piece of music and every book ever written.  Ten years from that day, you'll have enough memory to save every utterance ever made by any human in the 30,000 years humanity has been a species. 

Of course, the question becomes:  WHY would you need this much memory?    Well, you WILL.  Ten years ago people would say "Why would I ever need 1 GB of storage?" and  today people routinely fill up this much space with videos and music.  They say the same thing now about 1 TB of storage, or 1 EXABYTE of storage.

Take a look at this article.  It talks about this stuff very nicely:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1


 
GregB777
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 5/2007
GregB777  
Replied

GregB777
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 5/2007
GregB777  
 
Posted On Sep 14, 2007
I was finally able to access that other article, about petabyte storage by 2010.  In 1995, the world memory capacity was 20 petabytes (1 million GB=1 petabyte))  By 2010 a single home hard drive will likely have 1 petabyte storage.   That is 15 years.  from 1995-2010.  By the same trend, a home PC will then, in 2025, have 1 zettabyte of storage available to it (that is 1 million petabytes.)  That is a million million gigabytes, or 10exp12 gigabytes.  15 years from that date, 2040, you'll have access to a million zettabytes of storage, or a million million million gigabytes, 10exp18 gigabytes.  

All bets are off once we start getting into such stratospheric memory availabilities.  Like Dr Mercola said, you'll be able to record every moment of your life--- not only a video of it, but every thought as well (since thoughts are just electromagnetic signals.)  

We live in very interesting times.

 
 
 
Posted On Sep 12, 2007
So if, and when, this technology gets to market, is it a good or bad thing for human health? Or both?

I heard that regular users of I-Pods are now suffering from hearing disorders.  Apple denys it of course, but I believe the studies were indeed vetted.

 
Russ Bianchi
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 9/2006
Russ Bianchi  
Replied

LM36
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 12/2006
LM36  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
Yes, Russ, there is now a black box warning on Apple products (iPhone & iPods) that reads:  Side effects may include the following disorders iDeaf, iBroke & iRate.   The iDontcare Department will be handling all claims!

  


cheftodd
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
cheftodd  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
I think that it is right on.I can ask   my kids all to do there chores and I get (what, I did not hear you)


Terse
Novice User Novice User Joined On 2/2007
Terse  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
It's not just iPods.  It's the music being blasted into the ears of the people.  Ears are delicate and soundwaves can be incredibly powerful--especially with that close of a range.

So really, the thing to blame here is the people who are blasting the music into their skulls.  There are acceptable levels to listen to music at.  It's unfortunate that some people don't pay attention to that and lose their hearing for it.


EQ
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
EQ  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
iLike LM36

and, Russ, this phenomena is nothing new.  The Walkman started it, iPods are just continuing the tradition of causing hearing disorders.  

I'm a professional musician.  I've had gigs where I'm required to wear in-ear monitors (lowest db level possible), but if I don't have to, I won't.  I no longer play the gigs where I actually have to wear earplugs.  It's amazing how many professional sound techs have hearing disorders.


Maj_203
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
Maj_203  
 
Posted On Sep 13, 2007
While I totally understand that listening to lots of loud noise can impair hearing, I think that there's more to it than that. I think that with today's nutrient-deficient diet, people have less of an ability to recover from listening to loud noises - they aren't getting the proper vitamins and minerals to help fend off and repair minor damage, so that damage builds on itself until it's permanent.

The more I learn, the more I realize that health issues are often more related to nutrition than we suspect.


Reesacat
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 1/2007
Reesacat  
 
Posted On Sep 27, 2007
LM36, that is funny!


samurai
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
samurai  
 
Posted On Sep 27, 2007
I like that, LM36!

 
 
 
Posted On Sep 27, 2007

**What hath God wrought?** (Samuel Finley Breese Morse 1846)  Message sent from Baltimore Maryland to the White House--Now we might ask,

what more will God give us?  Or will we destroy ourselves sooner?


 
tihsbuster
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 8/2007
tihsbuster  
Replied

TGNMOM
Novice User Novice User Joined On 7/2007
TGNMOM  
 
Posted On Sep 27, 2007

I was thinking along those lines also. We have ever increasing amounts of access to knowledge, yet there is more and more ignorance all around us.


 
 
 
Posted On Sep 27, 2007

I recently bought an mp3 player because I wanted to have portable music and audio wherever I went, but it gives me headaches and my ears hurt.  I just wish it was possible to somehow transmit that without going through the ears and without causing problems with those around us.  Maybe attach a small speaker to the mp3 player and set it down.  Idk.


 
Komic Kaze
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 12/2006
Komic Kaze  
 
 
 
 
© Copyright 2009 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your site please click here. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Mercola is required.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your physician before using this product.