Sounds like science fiction to me.
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 1:11 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [RC] sub-atomic IBM Times of India IBM claims atom breakthrough AGENCIES, Sep 24, 2010, 05.49pm IST Read more: <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/hardware/IBM-claims-atom-break through/articleshow/6620737.cms#ixzz10TYcVvG3> IBM claims atom breakthrough - The Times of India <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/hardware/IBM-claims-atom-break through/articleshow/6620737.cms#ixzz10TYcVvG3> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/hardware/IBM-claims-atom-breakt hrough/articleshow/6620737.cms#ixzz10TYcVvG3 SAN FRANCISCO: International Business Machines Corp. is developing a process that may pack more music on Apple <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Apple> Inc's iPod Nanos or make solar panels more efficient. IBM <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/IBM> scientists are unveiling today a technique for observing atomic reactions in real-time. It may help manufacturers make smaller devices with greater memory, Spike Narayan, an IBM researcher, said in a phone interview. "It's easy to make things on a small scale, but to understand how things behave going down to the smaller scale, that's really what's needed," said Narayan, who manages science and technology at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/San-Jose> , California. IBM, the world's largest computer-services provider, invested about $6 billion, or about 6 percent of its sales, in research projects last year. The company is aiming to design more efficient methods to process and store information as customers demand more computing power. The technique may enable manufacturers to make hard-drives that hold 1,000 times more data than now, said Rob Enderle, a principal analyst at Enderle Group. One version of the iPhone 4, Apple's newest model with features including video calls, Web surfing and a music player, has a capacity of 32 gigabytes. "Think of iPhones that, instead of having gigabytes, have terabytes -- that's what this could mean," Enderle said. One terabyte is equivalent to about 1,000 gigabytes. "It allows them to put vastly more data in a vastly smaller space," the San Jose-based analyst said. Atom <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/search?q=Atom> magnetism Using a special microscope that images atoms, scientists moved an atom with voltage and measured its magnetism at various points, observing how it acted at a speed 1 million times faster than has been possible. The study enabled them to time how long an atom can hold 1 byte of data. For an iron atom on a copper surface, it was 200 nanoseconds, comparable to typical dynamic random access memory, which is used in personal computers, Narayan said. Now scientists may use the technique to see how certain combinations hold data, and how few atoms are needed for various functions. Observing atom's reactions in real-time also has implications outside the storage industry, Narayan said. Scientists could manipulate how atoms react to light, helping make solar panels more efficient, he said. The technique could help study how atoms in bodies consume energy, he said. IBM, based in Armonk, New York, makes about $1 billion a year in licensing revenue, according to regulatory filings. This month, IBM Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano criticized rival Hewlett Packard Co. for cutting investments in research and development, saying it forces them to pay more for acquisitions. HP agreed to pay $2.35 billion this month for data-storage maker 3Par, after a bidding contest with Dell Inc. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
