New single-molecule magnet tech could unlock hard drives with 100x more capacity — drives could store half a million TikTok views on a hard drive the size of a postage stamp, or three terabytes per square centimeter

Data center close up
(Image credit: Getty / Comezora)

A ground-breaking new type of molecule engineered by scientists could open the door for storage technology with a capacity 100x current offerings, thanks to a new single-molecule magnet that can be kept at the requisite freezing temperatures with readily available coolants, a major breakthrough in single-molecule magnet technology.

The chemists from The University of Manchester and The Australian National University (ANU) published findings in Nature. As explained by Phys, while modern hard drives store data by magnetizing small regions comprised of lots of atoms working together, single-molecule magnets can store data individually without the help of neighbouring molecules, paving the way for very high-density data storage.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.

  • edzieba
    For an actually useful comparison (rather than that utterly worthless Tiktok thing that Toms should be embarrassed to repeat, let alone use in the headline) - this material at 3TB/cm^2 compares to 0.28 TB/cm^2 for currently commercial available HAMR drives (1.8 TBsi), with HAMR projected to achieve up to 1.55 TB/cm^2 (10 TBsi), without cryogenic cooling.
    Reply
  • Li Ken-un
    edzieba said:
    For an actually useful comparison (rather than that utterly worthless Tiktok thing that Toms should be embarrassed to repeat, let alone use in the headline)
    Man… I just want them to tell me how much that is in banana units.
    Reply
  • usertests
    store half a million TikTok views
    Did you mean VIDEOS? LLM slop looking headline.
    Reply
  • George³
    edzieba said:
    For an actually useful comparison (rather than that utterly worthless Tiktok thing that Toms should be embarrassed to repeat, let alone use in the headline) - this material at 3TB/cm^2 compares to 0.28 TB/cm^2 for currently commercial available HAMR drives (1.8 TBsi), with HAMR projected to achieve up to 1.55 TB/cm^2 (10 TBsi), without cryogenic cooling.
    Probably is type error. Zero button was stuck. :D
    Reply
  • Stomx
    As usually the hype is our everything. So not 100x but 10x and eventually just 2x
    Reply
  • Conor Stewart
    drives could store half a million TikTok views on a hard drive

    You might want to try proof reading articles before you post them. Does anyone actually care about how many tiktok videos it could store? Do many people actually know how much storage a tiktok video takes up on their servers? It will all depend on their compression and video quality.

    Why not just stick to units that are standardized and most people actually understand? Not how many tiktok videos or copies of an album it can store.
    Reply
  • darylzero
    usertests said:
    Did you mean VIDEOS? LLM slop looking headline.
    This is what Gen Z looks like
    Reply
  • usertests
    darylzero said:
    This is what Gen Z looks like
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Beta
    Generation Beta (often shortened to Gen Beta) is the proposed name for the demographic cohort succeeding Generation Alpha. The name was coined by futurist and demographer Mark McCrindle (who also coined the name Generation Alpha). He defines the cohort as those born from 2025 to 2039.
    Imagine being born in 2025 tho
    Reply