A vision of ultra-high density memory

Skeptics have been questioning the extensibility of conventional magnetic storage technologies for many years, and have been proved wrong when they predict the end of the line for a particular storage scheme (flexible disks and tapes come to mind). Disk drives will certainly continue to improve and overcome the difficult barriers being faced in the march to 10 Gbit/in2 and beyond. However, it is worthwhile to ask if there might be an alternative technology which could jump ahead of the disk drive areal density growth line. In order to challenge the well-established disk industry, the new technology must have a significant density advantage, as well as maintaining cost and performance parity. The author shows the rigid disk areal density growth, along with a fanciful growth curve positioned roughly two orders of magnitude above the disk curve. The ultra-high density of this storage vision leads us to label the concept Atomic Resolution Storage. The system could use arrays of magnetic columns