Chuck Morehouse, director of Hewlett-Packard's Information Storage Technology Lab in Palo Alto, Calif., is quick to point out that atomic resolution storage (ARS) will probably never completely replace rotational magnetic storage. Existing hard-disk drives and drive arrays play well in desktops and data centers where device size is not a major issue. But what about the requirements for mass storage on a wristwatch or in a spacecraft, where form factor, mass and power consumption are overriding criteria?

The ARS program at Hewlett-Packard (HP) aims to provide a thumbnail-size device with storage densities greater than one terabit (1,000 gigabits) per square inch. The technology builds on advances in atomic probe microscopy, in which a probe tip as small as a single atom scans the surface of a material to produce images accurate within a few nanometers. Probe storage technology would employ an array of atom-size probe tips to read and write data to spots on the storage medium. A micromover would position the medium relative to the tips.

   
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