EXCLUSIVES

Review by Ron Mwangaguhunga
Image by Jesicca Smith

Nanotechnology is the hottest trend in the technology sector since Bluetooth wireless solutions. The technology could significantly increase low storage capability device PDAs, like MP3s, digital and video cameras, as well as cell phones.

Companies as diverse as Apple Computer, and IBM have explored the advantages of this breakthrough technology for the past decade. Project Millipede could increase the viability and commercial popularity of Web-based services available to such devices. This, in turn, could benefit Apple, which has a strategic eye trained towards the digital entertainment hub.

This technology could carry your whole CD library in a flash memory type form factor," Peter Vettiger, Millipede Project Leader said. Apple has sponsored several nanotechnology conferences in the past. IBM, though, in particular, has turned their considerable research and development dollars towards the benefits of this technology in the data magnetic storage space.

The recent inaugural issue of IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology reports on the latest proceedings of IBM's fascinating project, code-named Millipede. IBM's Zurich, Switzerland-based research team expects the prototype to be done in early 2003. IBM reports that the project has created a data storage density of a trillion bits per square inch, which is more than 20 times higher than the densest magnetic storage available today. Current storage technologies are probably approaching their fundamental limits, which has helped to boost optimism in the nanomechanical approach because it can potentially support a thousand-fold increase in data storage density. Millipede's data storage technology can store the equivalent of 200 CD ROMs, or 25 million textbook pages, on a surface the size of a postage stamp. Project Millipede stores ten to fifteen times more than would be possible with existing proven chip technology. Peter Vettinger told the UK's New Scientist in June that "this technology has (a) very strong potential for application in handheld and mobile devices." Although still years away from becoming a viable commercial product, "It's in a state where all the big problems are solved," said IBM's Dr. Binning to Kenneth Chang in the New York Times. Binnig began work on IBM's Millipede Project with his partner, Vettinger, six years ago.

The Nanotechnology Angle

What does Project Millipede do? Millipede uses thousands of nano-sharp tips to punch indentations representing individual bits into a sheath of polymer film coating a silicon substrate only a few nanometers thick. The indentations are made on the surface of the chip, similar to the old punch card systems that were common towards the end of the 19th century. These indentations represent individual bits. This advancement of the punch card system of data processing bypasses magnetic or electronic storage methods. The result is akin to a nanotech version of the data processing 'punch card', but with significant differences. First, it may be able to store more than three billion bits of data in the space occupied by just one hole in a standard punch card. Second, Millipede is re-writable, which allows it to be used over and over again.

"We're just at the beginning of the development of nanotechnology, and (we) can look forward to several decades of exciting new products created through the control of matter at the atomic and molecular level," Greg Schmergel, CEO, President and Co-Founder of Nantero, Inc, told MacDirectory.

"Nanotechnology isn't so much an industry in itself as it is an enabling technology that will ultimately revolutionize many different industries, including health care, electronics, manufacturing, materials, and more. You can already buy many products that have been improved with the help of nanotechnology--tennis rackets, mini vans, sunscreens, and more--but we are still waiting for the first truly revolutionary nanotech product."

MacDirectory asked Mr. Schmergel his thoughts about the benefits of Project Millipede to Nantero and the world at large. "Nantero's NRAM concept and IBM's Millipede are both examples of nanoelectromechanical devices, which we feel has great promise as a new direction in electronics," he replied. Although it's quite counterintuitive to design a memory storage device that is mechanical, at the nanoscale it has substantial benefits, including low power consumption. And the NRAM design also provides substantial speed increases over purely electronic designs, as well as an infinite lifetime [in terms of read/write cycles]."

"The Millipede project could bring tremendous data capacity to mobile devices such as personal digital assistants, cellular phones and multifunctional watches," said Vettiger. "In addition, we are also exploring the use of this concept in a variety of other applications, such as large-area microscopic imaging, nanoscale lithography or atomic and molecular manipulation."

As magnetic storage technology reaches its limits while processor technology continues to improve, hard drives are becoming a hindrance to a computer's performance. Nanotech drives provide the perfect solution. www.researchweb.watson.ibm.com/
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