Two hundred years ago, punching holes in cards was the hot new way to store data— in the weaving patterns of Joseph Jacquard’s automated loom. Now a new take on the idea has led to postage-stamp-sized chips that can store a terabit (1000 gigabits) of data, or the equivalent of 200 CDs. The system, known as Millipede, has been under development by researchers at IBM in Zurich, Switzerland, since the late 1990s (91av, 27 March 1999, p 46). It uses miniature spikes that record data bits by making tiny holes in a plastic film coated onto a slice…
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from 91av
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Health
Read the winner of this year’s Young Science Writer Award
Comment
Life
Extinct relative of koalas discovered in Western Australia
News
Physics
The 50-year quest to create a quantum spin liquid may finally be over
Features
Technology
Backlash builds over NHS plan to hide source code from AI hacking risk
News
Popular articles
Trending 91av articles
1
Man destined for Alzheimer's may have been saved by accidental therapy
2
Woman in cancer remission without treatment in highly unusual case
3
Extinct relative of koalas discovered in Western Australia
4
A lost ancient script reveals how writing as we know it really began
5
Hantavirus: Where has the deadly cruise ship outbreak come from?
6
The 50-year quest to create a quantum spin liquid may finally be over
7
We have figured out a new way to send messages into the past
8
Is consciousness more fundamental to reality than quantum physics?
9
300-year-old experiment could become world's best dark matter detector
10
Honey has been used as medicine for centuries – does it really work?
