Packing ten trillion bits of data onto a coin.
You've probably known about the contemporary 3.5" Hard Disk Drive - it's most likely what your operating system is installed on right now.
The current maximum storage amount you can get in these mechanical drives is two terrabytes, but a new nanoscale process can give up to 1.175TB on a disc the size of an American quarter (roughly the size of an Australian 20 cent piece).
Such incredible density (fifteen times the current highest) also requires a complicated manufacturing process, involving sliced crystals cut at specific angles, cooked for an entire day at huge temperatures, and then treated.
The whole process creates hexagonal metallic dots, each acting as a one or zero just the same as a hard drive works now.
With such a small size you start to run into problems elsewhere with actually reading and writing to such a small area, but those clever scientists reckon that with enough time (and most likely money too) the problems are definitely fixable.
Head over to Forbes to read a detailed look at the process.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009