Superman's memory crystals may become reality in computers (rewritable crystals?)

Telegraph ^ | 08/14/11 | Richard Gray

[TigerLikesRooster]

Superman's memory crystals may become reality in computers

Computers may soon be saving their data onto hard drives made of glass following research by British scientists who have developed a way of storing information similar to the "memory crystals" seen in the Superman films.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

9:45AM BST 14 Aug 2011

Researchers at Southampton University used lasers to rearrange the atoms in pieces of glass, turning it into new type of computer memory.

They claim the glass memory is far more stable and resilient than current types of hard-drive memory, which have a limited lifespan of a couple of decades and are vulnerable to damage from high temperatures and moisture.

The glass memory can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees F, is unaffected by water and can last for thousands of years without losing information.

Information can be written, wiped and rewritten into the molecular structure of the glass using a laser, the scientists claim.

The process changes the way light travels through the glass, creating whirlpools of polarised light that can then be read in much the same way as data in optical fibres.

[Razzz42]

Doesn’t the crystal tic off at 33 1/2 mhz? No wonder my computer clock can’t stay in sync in real time.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Several hundred years later, Mongols came along and destroyed all library collections in Baghdad as well as killing most of its residents. Karma at work?

[Oztrich Boy]

Pyramids have stood for thousands of years, but knowledge and information had no equivalent so far

Actually the oldest baked clay tablets predate the pyramids

Progress: going from am information storage system that lasts 5000 years to one that can be corrupted by a fridge magnet.

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[Covenantor]

Shucks, I knew I should have filed my patent sooner.

That's my home computer set up. The server is the one on the right. Data transfer is achieved through the special reserve data transmission fluid. Very high transfer rates can be achieved in the direct fluid to neuron receptor networks, the only draw back being at the receiving end, occasionally resulting in fluid memory dumps to the porcelain memory buffer. That's a software problem.

[AFreeBird]

Babylon 5 Computer Storage Crystals.

[tal hajus]

I would recommend Will Durant’s “Caeser and Christ” as interesting and readable history.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Grizzled Bear. It's amusing, I grew up listening to music and whatnot off 78s left over from my parents' youth, remember when "Stereo" on the dustjackets of LPs was a big deal, and the record players (which were mostly mono) had four speeds on 'em (16 2/3, 33 1/3, 45, 78); and the quad format wars (I never fired a shot in that); 8 track vs cassette; laserdisks vs that capacitance disk format; CDs; DVD vs that DVD with expiration date system pushed very hard by Circuit City (easy rental, if you liked it, you could pay the balance so it could run forever, otherwise it would expire; flopped like a fish out of water); HD-DVD vs BluRay...

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[Quix]

...and can last for thousands of years without losing information.

How did they confirm this? ;-P

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Perhaps Helen Thomas or Madelin AllDull gave a personal report from personal observations.

[Quix]

Now now.

OBLITERATING MEMORY

and

PRESERVING [NOT as in pickling]

memory are

two VERY DIFFERENT operations.

[allmost]

A hardened storage medium is necessary. I don't own one that will be guaranteed to last for more than a few decades, paper.