HOLE IN ONE Peter Vettiger and his team of researchers at IBM's micro and nanomechanics group in Zurich are in the process of creating the world's smallest data storage disks. With a certain number of cantilevers, Vettiger's new product, called the Millipede, can store more than 100 times more data on a polymer-coated disk than today's magnetic hard disks can store. The Millipede can read and write data at roughly 100 Mbps, and can store as much as 3000 GB of data on one square centimeter. Such a microscopic mechanism may have a few problems, one being that an assembly has not yet been built to fit into a real computer's disk drive. Other problems relate to the long-term durability of the moving parts, and to the fact that the polymer surface that contains the data only moves in a straight line and has not yet been formed into a disk. However, IBM says these problems should be solved soon, and that it will not be too long before the product is available on the market. (New Scientist 03/27/99) -- To get out of this list, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/ and the archive at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
