IBM researchers store a bit on 12 atoms.

• Position: INFO TECHNOLOGY - Brief article

IBM researchers have figured out how to store a single bit of data in just 12 atoms. It's quite a feat, as today's computer hard drives require about 1 million atoms per bit.

To set up the tiny storage system, engineers used a scanning tunneling microscope at temperatures near absolute zero. Instead of collecting atoms that spin in the same direction to hold memory, or "ferromagnets," they alternated iron atoms that rotate one way with ones that turn in the opposite direction, arranging them in two rows of six on a copper-nitride surface. That alternating alignment--called antiferromagnetism--kept the atoms from creating a magnetic field that would repel other atoms, allowing researchers to "really pack them right next to each other' study author Andreas Heinrich told MSNBC.com.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The technique could lead to computers that store...