Table Salt Could Allow for 18 Terabyte Hard Drives
A team has discovered that, by using table salt, they can made hard drives even denser, possibly producing 6TB per hard drive platter.
Dr Joel Yang at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) has discovered a way to increase the data density of a drive to 3.3 Terabit/inch2, meaning that it will be possible to manufacture hard drive platters offering 6 TB of storage. Surprisingly the secret ingredient in producing these high-capacity drives is sodium chloride, or rather, your common table salt.
"Conventional hard disks have randomly distributed nanoscopic magnetic grains - with a few tens of grains used to form one bit – that enable the latest hard disk models to hold up to 0.5 Terabit/in2 of information," IMRE explains in a press release. "The IMRE-led team used the bit-patterned media approach, where magnetic islands are patterned in a regular fashion, with each single island able to store one bit of information."
Manufacturers currently use tiny grains of around 7 to 8-nm in size deposited on the surface of storage media. A single bit of data is stored in a cluster of these grains and not in any single grain. However Dr. Yang managed to store the same amount of information on a single grain the size of 10-nm. Thus, replacing several 7-nm grains with one 10-nm grain saves space and allows for denser storage capacities.
In addition to the higher capacity, the IMRE also reveals that the new method can be added to existing lithography processes thanks to a secret ingredient: tablet salt.
"The secret of the research lies in the use of an extremely high-resolution e-beam lithography process that produces super fine nano-sized structures," IMRE reports. "Dr Yang discovered that by adding sodium chloride to a developer solution used in existing lithography processes, he was able to produce highly defined nanostructures down to 4.5-nm half pitch, without the need for expensive equipment upgrades."
Dr. Yang said that the salt-based method has achieved data-storage capability at 1.9 Terabit/in2, though bits of up to 3.3 Terabit/in2 densities were fabricated. Further research and development is aiming to achieve 10 Terabit/inch2 in the future, but don't expect drives using the salt-based process to appear for another two years if not more.
- Storage,
- table-salt ,
- sodium-chloride ,
- 18tb ,
- hdd ,
- 10-nm
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Wouldn't storing data over multiple grains enable greater data reliability, if 1 grain is wrong but 4 are right for example.
In 10 years....
I can't wait until 2021 when these drives are available!
Very true, but I don't think it would be less reliable than today's drives. From what I've gained from from this article, one bit of information is stored on several different grains, so if any one of those grains is messed up, then the data is messed up.
Here the data is on one grain (so only 1 point of failure rather than several), so maybe its more reliable? That's my logic anyway...
Will it rust?
Very true, but I don't think it would be less reliable than today's drives. From what I've gained from from this article, one bit of information is stored on several different grains, so if any one of those grains is messed up, then the data is messed up.Here the data is on one grain (so only 1 point of failure rather than several), so maybe its more reliable? That's my logic anyway...
In ten years u could have 24GB as well.
In ten years u could have 24TB as well.
Will it rust?
U need to keep it away from the moose.
U need to keep it away from the moose.
And you* the keyboard AND mouse*.
@dane1234, I appreciate the joke haha
"In addition to the higher capacity, the IMRE also reveals that the new method can be added to existing lithography processes thanks to a secret ingredient: tablet salt."
I knew iPads were good for something
Another would-be-if-it-could-be-maybe technology that, for the moment, should be taken with a grain of salt.
In Ten years? By that time everyone will probably be using SSD drives, as their prices would have dropped a lot by then and their sizes increased.
this will drive up the prices of salt!
Just think about all the... home movies... you could fit on there... yeah... so many home movies...
Nice, but they need to get HD's more reliable: whether it's SSD or not.
because losing all that data would really sucks.
this will drive up the prices of salt!
I doubt it. It's such a tiny amount on the grand scheme of things.
Good ol' NaCl
somehow, someway, Apple is going to find a way to sue the pants off these people for patent infringement.
this will drive up the prices of salt!
Hehehehehe, Nice one dude. LMAO
Salt Lake City is the new Silicon Valley.
As for the grains debate. I don't believe these grains are used in the discrete fashion being debated. I think it is more of an analog threshold type thing for the cluster/grain as a unit.
Apple is going to sue this. Clearly, the salt is a rippoff of the iSalt.
Hmmm.....Interesting article bit I wonder if hard disk drives will still be around 10 years from now.
"What are you doing at Home Depot? I thought you were working on that new PC."
"I am. I need to get a back-up generator. I have 6TB mechanical HDDs and need to rebuild the array."
"Huh?"
"Dude, it's gonna take ages, can't risk the power-loss."
There's no telling what else will be available when 6TB HDDs hit the market. You'll probably want to buy at least 2 so you have something to back up data to. How much does 6TB of cloud storage cost? In addition, with ISP caps, I can only back up 200-250GB per month assuming I don't use the internet for anything else.
wait till you see my digital pepper
wait till you see my digital pepper
lol... and are these things iodized or not?
How many TB's would you like on those fries sir?
If you leave it outside, will it attract deer?
Interesting article. I'd take it as grain of salt.
Amazing that expression pointed them in the right direction.
I wonder what this will do for transfer capacity.
Sure 18Tb drives sound impressive, but by the time it arrives we should be ushering in the next resolution above 4K2K or even holographic video, I wouldn't be surprised if TV episodes are 20Gb each.
I can't wait until 2021 when these drives are available!
Nah, 6 years from now max.