Thanks Lizette. That is very interesting. I'm sure any techknowlogy
utilizing these pictures is at least 5 years out, although thats just a
guess on my part. I assume if they can design storage that stores bits of
data on the atomic level, that we would have a HUGE increase in the density
of dasd. Also memory.
It amazes me to no end that right now I can buy a 1TB hard drive for my PC
for under $90. When we shut down the datacenter 3 years ago, we had a
Hitachi box that was about 3 feet square and 6 feet tall. It held 1TB also.
But then, 10 years earlier(1995), when we built the datacenter with real
3380's and 3390's, there wasn't much more we could have put in the
datacenter. When we moved out, before we took all the equipment out, we
could have set up a good size ballroom where all the dasd and the 3090 S600
was. Actually, we could have gotten a 100 MIP processer, as the first IBM
air cooled processor had just come out, but my boss didn't want to take for
granted that IBM would actually have any ready at that time.
Eric Bielefeld
Sr. Systems Programmer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-475-7434
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lizette Koehler" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 2:54 PM
Subject: OT - IBM Takes First Close-Up Image of Single Molecule
For the Geeks on this list - You know who you are. This relates to
circuit boards of the future.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,545138,00.html
As part of a greater effort to someday build computing elements at an
atomic scale, IBM scientists in Zurich have taken the highest-resolution
image ever of an individual molecule using non-contact atomic force
microscopy.
Performed in an ultrahigh vacuum at 5 degrees Kelvin, scientists were able
to "to look through the electron cloud and see the atomic backbone of an
individual molecule for the first time," a feat necessary for the further
development of atomic scale electronic building blocks.
Atomic force microscopy employs a cantilever so small that its tip tapers
to a nanoscale point. As the microscope scans, the cantilever bounces up
and down in response to the miniscule forces between the tip and the
sample, generating a picture of the sample’s surface.
The pentacene molecule sampled consists of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen
atoms and measures 1.4 nanometers in length, with the space between carbon
atoms registering at 0.14 nanometers, or half a million times smaller than
the diameter of a human hair.
The image should help researchers determine how charge moves through
molecules and networks of molecules, which in turn could lead to
breakthroughs in building computing elements at the atomic scale.
As circuits grow smaller, it becomes harder and harder to break the
sub-10-nanometer scale, a benchmark that several research groups are
trying to reach. Breakthroughs in circuit board and semiconductor
technology involving self-assembling DNA promise to deliver
infinitesimally smaller circuits, but reaching atomic-scale computing has
thus far eluded researchers.
Understanding the charge distribution of molecules could bring scientists
a large step closer to cracking atomic scale computing, which could vastly
reduce power consumption and fabrication costs.
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