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Emerging Digital Storage Devices of the Future |
Today’s storage devices are based on magnetic or optical technology. They may be sufficient for today’s need but are fast hurtling toward obsolescence as the power of the silicon processors increases. To meet this need for faster and more efficient storage devices, there are many promising products on the horizon.
Holographic Memory
For many years, many digital devices have used the medium of light to store digital data. The most famous of these are the optical disks. These are of two types " compact disks (CDs) and digital video disks (DVDs). Both of these consist of a circular platter made of tough plastic on which a laser beam emitted by the optical drive creates a pattern of microscopic pits.
Any time the operating system wants to access data, the laser reads this pattern on the disk surface and transfers the information back to the computer. Currently, the optical disks are the most popular and cost effective removable storage media available in the market. However, due to the increasing speed of silicon microprocessors and the changing demands of the customers, optical disks are going to become an unsuitable storage media quite soon.
Now, scientists have begun to work on a new high-capacity optical storage media based on what is called “holographic memory.” This uses interference of light in light-sensitive crystals to store data. The digital information is stored within the entire volume of the storage device, not just on the exposed surface as in the case of optical disks.
Holographic data storage is three dimensional, instead of two dimensional, and offers much better data density and transfer speed. It can store as much as one terabyte of data in a device just about half the size of your thumb. Conventional digital data storage devices write and read data one bit at a time, which is a major drag on access speed.
Holographic technology in contrast reads and writes a million bits of data in parallel with a single flash of light. Holographic storage devices use a laser beam to store data. The beam is split into two by a beam splitter. The beams pass through a semi-transparent crystal which acts like a filter to turn light into readable bits of data.
Research into holographic memory is nothing new. It has been going on since the 1960s. However, holographic storage devices couldn’t come into the market because the technology was quite expensive and couldn’t compete with magnetic and optical storage devices that were being mass produced by the millions. Things have begun to change now and it seems that holographic storage devices may become commonplace in another four or five years or so.
It is estimated that a holographic disk would be the shape and size of a DVD but have a capacity 27 times greater. This would translate to about 1 terabyte of data per disk. In addition, the holographic storage device would have a data transfer rate 25 times greater than today’s DVDs! Clearly, holographic technology would change the data storage industry beyond recognition.
Molecular Memory
Molecular memory is still in the realm of research, with scientists testing various ways to make a practical product that can be introduced in the market. In this, individual molecules and nano-wires are used to create large arrays of memory bits. Each molecule acts like a switch that can be either in the off or on state, thus representing digital data.
With this technology, up to 50 times more data can be crammed into the same storage space as today’s magnetic storage devices such as hard disks. Nano technology-based devices that may replace today’s silicon storage media are still a couple of decades away.
MRAM Chips
Magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) chips are one of the most important inventions in the computer industry that can change the data-storage landscape in the near future. These chips use a radical new technology to store data by relying on magnetic properties rather than electric charge that is used by today’s silicon chips.
In other words, they store digital information exactly like a hard drive. Unlike the latter, the MRAM chips have the capacity to hold data even after power supply has been switched off. They offer phenomenally fast read and write speeds and do not become degraded with time unlike USB drives.
MRAM chips have the potential one day to replace hard drives as well as removable storage devices based on Flash memory. They are an ideal substitute for today’s silicon chips which are quite unwieldy and big to be used in mobile computing devices.
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on <a href="http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk">Data Recovery</a> see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk
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