IBM stores data on an atom

[Adri]

IBM stores data on an atom
The discovery could someday lead to dust-size processors
August 31, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- IBM has demonstrated how to
perform certain computer functions on single atoms and molecules, a
discovery that could someday lead to processors the size of a speck of
dust, the company said Thursday.
Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose developed a
technique for measuring magnetic anisotropy, a property of the
magnetic field that gives it the ability to maintain a particular
direction. Being able to measure magnetic anisotropy at the atomic
level is a crucial step toward the magnet representing the ones or the
zeros used to store data in binary computer language.
In a second report, researchers at IBM's lab in Zurich said they had
used an individual molecule as an electric switch that could
potentially replace the transistors used in modern chips. The company
published both research reports in Friday's edition of the journal
Science.
The new technologies are at least 10 years from being used for
components in commercial products, but the discoveries will allow
scientists to take a large step forward in their quest to replace
silicon, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon.
To build faster, smaller chips, IBM and other chip vendors such as
Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. have shrunk the dimensions
of chip features from 90 nanometers to 65nm in the current generation
of chips and plan to continue to 45nm and 32nm in coming years. The
problem is that wires built from silicon tend to leak more electricity
at each step on that scale, and will eventually reach a limit where
they are no longer useful.
"Across all our areas of nanotechnology research, we're trying to
determine the new kinds of materials we can use in computing when
silicon reaches its fundamental limits. The ultimate goal is molecular-
level computers, but the interim products will probably be hybrids
with current technology, using things like carbon nanotubes," McMahon
said.
IBM defines nanotechnology as work done at a scale of 100nm or
smaller. At that scale, scientists must use a tool called the scanning
tunneling microscope (STM) to photograph and manipulate individual
atoms, as they did in their latest research. Their next challenge is
to find a way to make these laboratory demonstrations work at room
temperature, he said.
Having measured the magnetic anisotropy of a single atom, "their next
step is finding atoms that can do it at stable temperatures that are
suitable for storage devices. If they can find that, it's still a
decade out from commercialization," he said.
The Zurich researchers also developed a technique for using a molecule
containing two hydrogen atoms as a switch, either on its own or with
an adjacent molecule. They are now looking to apply the method to many
other molecules, enabling the system to work as a collection of logic
gates, the building blocks of microprocessors.
Even if the teams reach those goals, they must find a way to
manufacture the systems on a large scale, instead of moving single
atoms with the STM. One possibility is to use the process of self-
assembly, where atoms under certain conditions will naturally form the
desired shapes. In May, IBM said it had used that approach to insulate
the wires on a chip by creating trillions of tiny, vacuum-filled holes
around each one.