The next big thing?

I remember back in ancient days ('94?) reading about technologies that would replace SCSI. Things like USB and Firewire where you wouldn’t be limited to a seven device chain. People forget about the SCSI limitation nowadays but, it’s one of a number of tech standards that have come and gone over the last decade and a half (floppies, Bernoullis, Syquest, Zip, Jaz, CDs - anyone? anyone?). Well, I was doing my morning reading and came across this article and thought I would pass it along - the clincher in this case of course is the thing about the tech being on the market by ’06 pr ’07. Imagine 25 DVDs on a stamp!

One of IBM’s more promising near-term technologies is its Millipede data storage technology. The device — which works on a principle similar to those old data punch cards that those of us who are 40 or older used in the 1970s — employs atomic-sized tips to create pits about 10 nanometers wide that are then read as bits of data. This technique will allow a device the size of a postage stamp to hold the equivalent of 25 DVDs. If IBM can bring the technology to market in 2006 or 2007, as expected, it could represent a new way to store massive amounts of data and fuel wide-scale use in next-generation cell phones, digital cameras, and PDAs.