Crystals hold super computer key

Tiny crystals could hold the key to creating computers with massive storage capacity, scientists believe.

The crystals could be used as storage devices for desktop computers capable of holding 100-times more data than current systems.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have been using low-energy lasers to make salt crystals in gel.

The development could allow users to store a terabyte of data in a space the size of a sugar cube within a decade.

This would be enough to hold the equivalent of 250,000 photographs or a million books.

Many scientists regard making crystals as a black art, as the process of producing solid crystals from salt in solution is difficult to control.

It requires a critical mass of molecules gathered at one place, which is difficult to trigger and regulate.

The researchers overcame this difficulty by focusing two overlapping low-energy laser beams on a salt solution, providing exactly the right amount of energy to form a temporary crystal.

Read more . . .

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Tags: black art, critical mass, energy laser, energy lasers, holographic storage, laser beams, low energy, massive storage, salt crystals, storage capacity, storage devices, sugar cube, terabyte, tiny crystals, university of edinburgh

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 11:05 pm and is filed under BBC, Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.