Researchers utilize electricity to move magnetically-stored data

While Fujitsu works overtime in order to boost hard drive capacity by 500-percent in just two years, researchers at the University of Hamburg in Germany are devising a method to move magnetically-stored data around a HDD "a hundred times faster than currently possible." Guido Meier and colleagues are purportedly using "nanosecond pulses of electric current to push magnetic regions along a wire at 110-meters per second," which easily trumps today's method of using comparatively slow spinning discs to access data. Additionally, their vision of the next-generation hard drive will sport fewer mechanical parts in order to lessen the "wear and tear" that existing units face. Notably, the idea behind the creation was actually conjured up by an IBM employee in 2004, but if the Germans crafting the current prototype have anything to say about it, said idea could turn into reality sooner than later.

[Michael @ May 14th 2007 4:06AM]

Finally, devices with less noise/buzzing/whizzing!

[PJK @ May 14th 2007 5:06AM]

Whaddya mean finally, we already have SSDs.

[Gadgetguy @ May 14th 2007 6:05AM]

SO WILL THE DATA TRANSFER RATE BECOME 1GB/SEC

[Elledan @ May 14th 2007 7:30AM]

Isn't this called 'bubble memory', except on a smaller scale?

The article itself doesn't seem to mention what influences are behind this 'invention', but based on the details mentioned, it seems they're scaling down traditional bubble memory to fit on a silicon chip. Not a bad idea, though.

[thomas_malkin @ May 14th 2007 10:19PM]

So, it was an idea generated by an employee at IBM and they did nothing with it. As they rid themselves of the hard drive division. Then the PC division. And now, they are on the verge of outsourcing whatever employees they can.


See kids, when you cut your company down to the bare bones to satisfy Wall Street, you make a little money this year -- and you lose tens of billions five years from now.

Then, you die.

[Joel @ May 16th 2007 12:09AM]

Not that anyone will believe me, but I've actually done this by accident before when a wire (or 80) got crossed inside my case. The drives actually switched data. Sure, it wasn't in great shape, but I verified that it was in fact there by looking at one drive plugged in at a time.