Imagine storing the center of your business, your data, in molecules. IT providers globally are taking notice of a new and promising technology called molecular memory. The technology has got the trappings of science fiction, but it’s real and it could mean that data center facilities could be storing as much as 1000TB of data within a square inch of space, maximizing critical real estate within their facilities while cutting down on energy costs.
The technology is exciting, especially when you consider that the discovery of molecular memory will only accelerate the search for more, improved alternatives to today’s data storage solutions. Chemists at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) first developed the molecule that was used in the research, which was performed in an MIT lab.
Molecule Memory Defined
The technique works by manipulating the magnetic state of the unique molecule. Every molecule represents a binary 1 or 0 according to its magnetic state. The result is store more data in a limited amount of space.
How It’s Done
With the recent breakthrough in the technology, researchers have made inroads in specific manufacturing phases that will cut down on some of the cost of manufacturing as well as produce a product that will be kept cool more easily. This last part will be music in the ears of IT personnel who are driven to find the effective ways to control the temperature in their data center facilities.
What Now?
The team of researchers at MIT was led by Jagadeesh Moodera, who anticipates that the final version of the “molecular memory” device will be placed on shelves within the next decade. It is hoped that these systems will eventually replace traditional SSD storage devices across the board and will dramatically minimize energy usage and waste.
As data center operators across the globe work to cut costs and boost performance, this technology is both timely and invaluable. Moodera hopes that the findings will generate interest in developing more memory solutions.