Hard Drive “world’s smallest” developed with help … – Daily News – Lisbon

Prototype was developed by the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory and the University Delf Technical

The International Iberian Laboratory nanotechnology (INL) in Braga, participated in the development of the hard drive “world’s smallest” using a storage density that “in theory” would save “a single postage stamp” all the books in the world.

the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory explained that the collaboration with the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands) allowed the “reduction to the ceiling” of the space occupied by each ‘bit’ (smallest unit of information that can be stored or transmitted), leading to the development of a “laboratory prototype digital memory with ‘bits’ to the atomic scale that exceeds the storage density of current technologies.”

This prototype achieved a storage density of 500 terabit per square inch, “500 times better than hard drives available in the market,” and the results of the joint research were recently published in Nature Nanotechnology.

“in theory, this storage density would allow all books ever created by man could be recorded on a single postage stamp, “said Sander Otte, the researcher leading the project at Delft Technical University.

the INL recalls that” modern society creates more than a billion gigabytes of new information “every day and that” it is increasingly important that each ‘bit’ occupy the smallest possible space “to be able to store all the data.

group of scientists says” managed to bring this down to their limit with the fabrication of a memory of 1 kilobyte (8000 bits), where each bit is represented by the position of a single chlorine atom. “

the” memory “manufactured” breaking several records, “according to INL:” It is by far the largest manufactured functional structure, joining atom by atom. To date no one had been able to go beyond the thousand atoms, “says Joaquín Fernández-Rossier, head of INL Theoretical Physics group.

Despite the” new approach “to offer” excellent prospects in terms of stability and scalability “this memory type should not be introduced into the short-term data processing centers.

” in its current form, the memory can operate only in very clean conditions of vacuum and temperature liquid nitrogen, so that the actual storage of atomic scale the data is still some way off. But through this achievement, it certainly one step closer to we succeed, “Otte said.