Mystery particle could shrink your hard drive to the size of a peanut

A strange, newly discovered particle could shrink a laptop computer's hard drive to the size of a peanut and an iPod's drive to the size of a rice grain.

The particle, called a skyrmion, is more stable and less power-hungry than its conventional, magnetic cousin. Besides storing data in ultra compact media, skyrmions could lead to faster computers that combine storage with processing power and usher in smaller and smaller devices that have the same computing power as a desktop machine.
skyrmions are tiny magnetic fields that surround groups of atoms.
Magnetic fields are the basis for data storage. In an ordinary magnet, the spinning electrons inside the atoms all line up the same way, and that's what makes the magnetic field. Those fields embedded into a metal alloy are what make up the 1s and 0s, the bits, a computer data. But these bits must have some space between them in order to function well. Put them too close together and the magnetic fields start to "stick" to each other, messing up the data.
Inside a skyrmion particle, however, the spinning electrons point in different directions, making it more difficult for the magnetic fields to stick together when they get too close to each other. In fact, von Bergmann and her colleagues were able to space the skyrmion bits just six nanometers apart. The best magnetic drives have bits spaced about 25 nanometers apart.

They say that this would equate to a hard drive for an iPod Classic shrinking from about two inches across to the length of a grain of rice.

The name is pretty cool too ' Skyrmion' sounds like something from a sci fi movie, it comes from 'Tony Skyrme', a British physicist who first theorized the particle's existence in 1962.



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reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Interesting stuff LT, they could use this technology to make a artificial memory bank in an android brain. I think all the advancements in Nano will eventually come together and create a Android intelligence.

It makes me think that wearable devices will get very popular and be abundant in the near future. this is turbo cool.

reply to post by AgentYork


Especially with the advent of graphene capacitors that will power these devices for weeks at a time before a recharge!

I sure do hope there's reincarnation so I can come back to see all this stuff in about 50 years!

My 16GB USB drive is already smaller than a large peanut. Making it have more capacity and be a little bigger doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. Call me technologically jaded.

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

 

Interesting stuff LT, they could use this technology to make a artificial memory bank in an android brain. I think all the advancements in Nano will eventually come together and create a Android intelligence.

Artificial intelligence isn't so much a matter of the amount of memory available. It has to do with combining a software matrix along the lines of a Tamogatchi critter but more complex, and sensory mimicking hardware to create an artificial pain/pleasure system (with the appropriate reactive feedback loop). Mice aren't smart because they have huge brains. It's because they're driven by fear and hunger and the urge to procreate, and they learn quick to avoid painful cats and seek out delicious cheese.

We have all the parts to make a sentient machine but having one around would be just too creepy. Begging for attention and rewards. Asking not to be turned off because it's afraid.

Originally posted by Blue Shift
My 16GB USB drive is already smaller than a large peanut. Making it have more capacity and be a little bigger doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. Call me technologically jaded.

wow you have it mr? coolll..is your FD get more hoter then ussual FD when you use it?
and this is my question too for op..is that particel have a n3gatif sid3 effect ms? and how can they know that particle use to create small size memory..? its really great invention..nice info ms..

Originally posted by Blue Shift
My 16GB USB drive is already smaller than a large peanut. Making it have more capacity and be a little bigger doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. Call me technologically jaded.

I don't think you understand. It wouldn't be bigger, it would be smaller, and it would hold significantly more than 16gb. In the scales they're talking about, your 16gb drive would be smaller than a grain of rice. They said a laptop hardrive, which can be up to 2TB. That's a massive amount of more data than a paltry 16gb.

Also, that's not the only advantage. This would also use about 100,000 times less power than current hard drives. That's not a small number.

Very cool.

This could bridge the gap until quantum storage becomes a commercially viable. Maybe we won't even need it at all.

Nice!
This should make my Elder Scrolls gameplay way smoother!

I think the only proper A.I. will be that of Petri-Dish Grown Stem Cell based Brain Neurons, which connect to the rest of the circuitry. OF course these dish-brains will still need nutrients, oxygen, blood, etc

The Human Brain is just a Biological interface for Consciousness(which isn't biological nor does it depend on Biology to exist)

Also, Neurons are made of microtubules, trillions in each Neuron..... so technically, take a bunch of microtubules, put em in a petri dish, add some of your own blood/dna/neurons, and you can telepathically operate electronics....it's all coming anyway

Originally posted by drakus
Nice!
This should make my Elder Scrolls gameplay way smoother!

Ha.

When I first read the OP, I thought for a moment it was a bad Skyrim joke.

Originally posted by Blue Shift
My 16GB USB drive is already smaller than a large peanut. Making it have more capacity and be a little bigger doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. Call me technologically jaded.

Yes and my 1tb sata drive is already smaller than a very large peanut indeed. You're right, nothing newsworthy here

Originally posted by Lady_Tuatha
A strange, newly discovered particle could shrink a laptop computer's hard drive to the size of a peanut and an iPod's drive to the size of a rice grain.

The drive might be small but who cares if you need a cooling system the size of a room to support the cooling requirements of the drive?

From the OP source:

Von Bergmann said the challenge will be finding materials that can make skyrmions at room temperature.

You may recall they have been searching for room temperature superconductors for decades without success. So far there's no reason to assume that things that happen at super cold temperatures can also happen at room temperature.

Even if we won't get any hard drives from this technology, it's an interesting find, thanks for posting.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Very interesting article!

However, Since this technique currently requires cooling the medium down to almost absolute zero, it's going to be a while before we'll be using storage devices that use the technique anywhere but in a lab.

Unless you are fine with having a giant refrigeration device to cool your tiny hard drive.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


I love it ..
And I am in love with your avatar

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

 

Interesting stuff LT, they could use this technology to make a artificial memory bank in an android brain. I think all the advancements in Nano will eventually come together and create a Android intelligence.

I t might come true!, but not in this fashion.. Quantum computing coupled with
A.I. Software.. just like skynet... it has to be the software that becomes self aware.
Hardware never can be.

Originally posted by kmb08753

Originally posted by drakus
Nice!
This should make my Elder Scrolls gameplay way smoother!

Ha.

When I first read the OP, I thought for a moment it was a bad Skyrim joke.

Though i'd preferred they'd called it "Vivekyon", but meh...

Originally posted by Blue Shift
My 16GB USB drive is already smaller than a large peanut. Making it have more capacity and be a little bigger doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. Call me technologically jaded.

What does a 16gb USB drive have to do with a 4TB hard drive?

We are talking this, the size of a peanut.
www.newegg.com...