Soon, computers that work 100K times faster than current hard disks

WASHINGTON - The day is probably not far when we would see computers equipped with shock-proof memory that work 100,000 times faster and consume less power than current hard disks.

Every time a computer boots up, 2-3 minutes are lost while information is transferred from the hard disk into RAM (random access memory) - the global cost of which runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars a day.

The new proposed solution is set to change all that.

In this system the tape would be a nickel-iron nanowire, a million times smaller than the classic tape. And unlike magnetic videotape, in this system nothing moves mechanically.

The bits of information stored in the wire are simply pushed around inside the tape using a spin-polarized current, attaining the breakneck speed of several hundred meters per second in the process.

Professor Mathias Klauiat and colleagues at the Zurich Research Center of IBM said that billions of nanowires would be embedded in a chip, providing enormous capacity on a shock-proof platform. A market-ready device could be available in as little as 5-7 years.

Racetrack-equipped computers would boot up instantly, and their information could be accessed 100,000 times more rapidly than with a traditional hard disk.

Additionally, energy consumption could be slashed by nearly a factor of 300, to a few mW while the memory is idle.

Their results were published online October 25, 2010, in the journal Physical Review Letters. (ANI)