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A team of researchers led by Abigail Mann at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, has developed a storage technology that outperforms binary files by being 4 times denser. They used a new technique to store data on a polymer film by creating nanoscale indentations with a microprobe that uses atomic force microscopy to move. according to New AtlasThe technique is similar to how Mesopotamians stored data on cuneiform tablets, but instead of using reeds and clay tablets, the team used a compound called dicyclopentadiene and sulfur to build an inexpensive polymer layer.
CDs and DVDs work just like this – a polymer (such as acrylic plastic) is indented with a laser to store data. However, what makes this technology different is that the indentation is performed by a fine-tip probe, not by laser light. Furthermore, the polymer developed by Flinders’ team is sensitive enough that the depth of each indentation can be adjusted on the nanometer scale. According to the report, the region without an indentation is 0, while the segments with a depth of 0.3 to 1.0 nm are indicated as 1. If the depth of the indentation is 1.5 to 2.5 nm, its value is 2.
This means that this polymer can store triplet code, essentially quadrupling its storage capacity compared to systems that use only binary. The polymer base is stable, which allows you to store data on it for a long time, and you can write on it at room temperature. This means you don’t have to spend large amounts of energy to write on it.
However, if you heat the polymer to 140°C for 10 seconds, all data on it will be erased, allowing you to reuse it to store new data. The polymer has already been tested for four cycles of write, read, erase and rewrite, proving its durability, although this may also mean that you cannot partially delete data stored on it.
“This research opens the possibility of using simple, renewable polysulfides in probe-based mechanical data storage, providing a lower power, higher density and more sustainable alternative to current technologies,” says Mann.
Although most of us use SSDs and hard drives for storage nowadays, the music industry has Find out the hard way This media is not designed for long-term storage. That’s why researchers are still looking for other techniques to preserve our data, e.g 125TB optical disc format Or this 5D data cube made of silica glass.
There are still many challenges facing this new data storage technology, such as how dust affects it and how long it lasts in storage. But as research on this front continues, we may one day find ourselves purchasing these “cuneiform disks” to help archive the vast amounts of data we generate in a single year.
