ARC Storage: The Next Small Thing

Although experts say traditional magnetic storage will reign for three to five more years, technology is in the offing that could revolutionize the shape,and size,of storage.

Atomic Resolution Storage (ARS), a technology being studied by companies including IBM and Hewlett-Packard, could render the concept of areal density almost obsolete. Using this technology, future drives could store one terabit per square inch, allowing data to be deployed in new places and in greater quantities than ever before.

While modern magnetic hard disks use precision components, they won't be able to hold a candle to the inner workings of an ARS drive. ARS will use microscopic probes less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair to write and read data. When those probes are brought near a conducting material, data is written by changing the charges of atoms in the media. The probes can also detect and retrieve data, and can be used to write over old data.

Researchers are optimistic that the technology will succeed, and the technology is all but developed except for one important thing: the media. Complex chemical-and-materials engineering is under way to develop a media that is sensitive enough to record such small, atom-sized bits and that, at the same time, is resistant to environmental factors that would reverse the charges and erase the disk. When this media is developed, look for high-capacity drives in all sorts of places, including your wristwatch and clothing.