White paper - Alternative Storage Technologies

Alternative Storage Technologies Whitepaper

Emerging storage medium technologies

Several innovations aim to solve the data density (lack of storage space) and environmental (data centres’ energy consumption) challenges. However, most of the innovations are in an early stage of development, and the writing and reading technology are complicated and costly.

For these technologies to become a reality, they have to be affordable, and the data retrieval tech- nology must be open, available and easy to recre- ate in the future. The following are some of the new emerging technologies. GRAPHENE Graphene is made from sheets of carbon atoms arranged in a lattice. Each sheet is just one atom thick. An International group of Russian and Japanese sci- entists developed a material that will significantly increase the recording density in data storage de- vices, such as SSDs and flash drives. They based their work on spintronics instead of electronics. In spintronics, devices operate on the principle of magnetoresistance. There are three layers, the first and third of which are ferromagnetic, and the middle one is nonmagnetic. Passing through such a “sandwich” structure, electrons, depending on their spin, are scattered differently in the magnetized edge layers, which affects the resulting resistance of the device. The control of the information using the standard logical bits, 0 and 1, can be performed by detecting an increase or decrease in this resis- tance. The scientists created the three layers using a combination of graphene and the semi-metallic Heusler alloy Co2FeGaGe. By selecting the Heusler alloy composition and the methods of its applica- tion, it was possible to create a thinner sample that significantly increases the capacity of magnetic memory devices without increasing their physical size.

Next, scientists plan to scale the experimental sample and modify the structure.

5D OPTICAL STORAGE Researchers are using an extreme durable quartz glass as a storage medium, which can survive di- sasters like fires or solar flares, potentially harm- ful for data centres. Besides the robustness of the medium, they can use additional degrees of free- dom for data storage, which help to increase ca- pacity.” The storage solution is described as being five-dimensional. Information is encoded in mul- tiple layers, including the usual three dimensions. However, it is also encoded in orientation and size of imprinted structures — thereby giving it five degrees of freedom for data storage. The storage allows for hundreds of terabytes per disc in data capacity. It’s also got thermal stability up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The main current bottleneck is the increase in writ- ing speed. The project still in development, and there are no specifications on the reading device.

5D memory crytal