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Contents : 2000 December 9 2000 Vol. 158 No. 24 p. 381 BROWSE BY YEAR BROWSE 2000 ISSUES TABLE OF CONTENTS PHYSICS Hot little levers write beaucoup bits Want a tip about the future of digital data storage How about a thousand or a million tips at once A large array of sharp microscopic points (SN: 4/1/95 p. 207) can be outstanding for recording and retrieving data on a layer of plastic report Mark I. Lutwyche and his colleagues at IBM s research laboratory in Zurich. Currently in the prototype stage a 1 024-tip device can already write bits in less space albeit in a spotty manner than the best laboratory magnetic disk drives can the researchers claim. If the array were enlarged to a million tips all operating simultaneously and independently the device could transfer data far more quickly than current disk drives do they say. We think it s feasible says IBM s Gerd K. Binnig. In the Nov. 13 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS the IBM group describes tests of its prototype 32 x 32 array of cantilevers resembling tiny diving boards with narrow blades poking down from their free ends. Electrically heated the blades indent the plastic surface or heated less leave it unmarred to write 1 or 0 bits respectively. The bits can be erased with another heat treatment which smoothes out the indentations. P.W. Copyright 2000 by Science Service

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