Microwires: Replacement For The CD-ROM?

"A ballpoint that detects forgery of a signature and a substitute in miniature for the CD-ROM are some of the applications that can be carried out using microwires."

A very interesting article regarding the replacement of CD-ROMs. Apparently these wires were created back in the soviet union and are now being found to have many more uses.

Original article.

Very interesting what technology brings.

I couldn't get the link to work.

How and when did they invent it?

What was its original purpose?

I think originally it was a Russian concept. I'm not positive on that one, but it would not surprise me in the least if it were true.

Originally posted by bpletcj
I couldn't get the link to work.

How and when did they invent it?

What was its original purpose?

"Microwires: Replacement For The CD-ROM?

A ballpoint that detects forgery of a signature and a substitute in miniature for the CD-ROM are some of the applications that can be carried out using microwires.

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Three or five times thinner than a human hair, these fine threads were invented in the old Soviet Union for military purposes but, the broader scientific community has been studying them for some time now for other applications – including at the University of the Basque Country (EHU).

Body and coating

Microwires have a metal body and a glass coating. The size of the metal body is usually about 1-20 μm radius and the glass coating of between 5 and 20 μm thickness Being so fine, the microthreads are totally flexible.

The main body of the microwire made of a ferromagnetic alloy, the composition of which varies depending on the metals used in the alloy and on the final dimensions of the thread. As a result, by balancing these two factors, the range of microwires that can be obtained is very wide. But there is one quality that they all have: they all have magnetic properties. It is precisely these magnetic properties and their diminutive size that make them so appreciated.

10 Megabits in 10 cm long

Amongst all the possible applications, the research team at the EHU has launched a similar project for using microwires as a system for storing information. The microwires become diminutive substitutes for the CD-ROM, given that information can be stored magnetically on them, as with CDs.

To do this, researchers use a magnetic properties present in certain microwires: the magnetic bistability associated with a circular, "bamboo"-type structure of domains. This structure presents positive and negative magnetising orientations at the surface of the microwire when this is subjected to a magnetic field, i.e. the microwire becomes magnetised. As a result, the two orientations of the magnetisation at the surface can be interpreted as the 1 and the 0 of a digital system (respectively positive and negative).

Taking this property into account, in order to create the replacement for the CD-ROM, the microwire has to be divided up along its length. Of course, the thread cannot be sectioned – the divisions are carried out internally by means of a process of anisotrophy.

The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million divisions or cells and in each one of these a bit can be stored. In order to store the bit, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other.

Once the information is recorded, a system for retrieving and reading it has to be devised. But the reading is not immediate. The initial response of the reading is an electrical signal which has to be amplified and processed in an appropriate manner in order to access the real information.

These are the targets of this project – but, of course, it is no easy task. The greatest difficulty it seems will be with the reading of information; i.e. the achievement of an electrical signal sufficiently suitable to be converted subsequently into a digital one."

Sorry I don't really understand this concept. They're saying microwires can be used as a magnetic based storage like cd's? erm... cd's aren't magnetic..

I could see the same problem woth floppy disks occuring with microwire based storage ie: it's based on magnetism which means run a magnet over the "disk" and goodbye data..or maybe I'm reading this wrong?

Yeah CD's information is stored optically NOT magnetically.

everything gets replaced eventually.
Lucky for my cd collection, the replacement wont happen for several decades, if not more. Technology takes a while to get adjusted to, longer to get phased out of.

take floppies. Most peole still use them every now and then. they've had a current lifespan of a few decades already.

cds, dvds will last about as long, if not longer.

cds, dvds will last about as long, if not longer.

Actually we are entering a 5 years generational cycle being mostly driven by the Sony's and Micro$oft's of the world. Sony will be releasing thier PS3 soon(within a year or so) it will bave a blu ray dvd inside. Thier is a new format war brewing that is looking like the old Betamax vs VCR battles of yesteryear. DVD, BluRay and HDDVD are all competing. If any of you guys want to save money wait till triple format dvd players come out, they are already waiting to get shipped, hopefullly they will not be that expensive. Cd's are pretty much already obsolete, most of my friends now use either Mini-Disc players or straight up MP3 Jukeboxes that can hold literally thousands of songs. Be smart with what you buy and you'll save yourself thousands of dollars in the long run.

e a great replacment for cds so many i'm buread in all of them can't breathe

I personally think flash drives are the wave of the future. They can hold so much information in such a small little card. Within a couple years SD Cards will be holding over 5 gigs of information and wouldn't suprise me if someday we see them holding 20 gigs.