IBM Fits A Bit Into Twelve Atoms
 

Science can sometimes just blow my mind. This is one of those times. <----- I Agree!

Researchers at IBM last week stored a bit, the smallest form of computer memory, into 12 atoms. They make the point of saying that this is significantly less than today?s hard drives that use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. They say that the ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components could lead to our ability to build smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices.

The usual route of technological advancement is to start out big and work your way down to smaller devices. The team at IBM flipped that notion on its head and started at the smallest they could go: a single atom. From there, they tested it to see how many atoms they could get before it would take to a single bit.

Full Article

What he said.

Utterly fucking amazing.

It's the basis of molecular computers Rochard. It's light speed computing.

sounds good

Cool science but that was a shittily written article.

Holy shit that's amazing. Probably coming to a server near you in 5-6 years and on our kids portable electronics in 10. Thank god IBM still really does invent stuff in their labs still.. way too much r&d money has disappeared the last decade, in general.

Brad

So... you're saying my BlackBerry is too big? How will I type on the keyboard with 150-atom-wide keys??

Seriously though, that's a-fricken-mazing. And debit cards were invented in our lifetime. And we only went to space 50 years ago. Shit.

Type? So 2000!

not far from storing every data ever made in the size of a current hard drive :) nullpoint energy foreshadowed something similar though.
still waiting for fast data transfer though. when movies, music, etc. don't have to be compressed/distorted, Then we'll get used to quality (although the netcops already stepped in..)

Holy fucking tiny bits, Batman!

that gif in your sig is hypnotizing..... can't... stop.... looking.........