Ion Beam Storage

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

LANL ION BEAM STORAGE HOLDS 180 TIMES MORE INFO THAN CD-ROMS       June 23
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS                                         HPCwire
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  Los Alamos, N.M. -- Four sets of encyclopedias could fit on an inch-long
steel pin using a new information storage technique invented at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. And future civilizations should be able to read the
information etched onto the pins 5,000 years from now, without interpretive
devices that convert computer data into language or pictures.


  The High-Density Read-Only Memory, or HD-ROM, uses a unique ion beam to
inscribe information on pins of stainless steel, iridium or other materials
that are built to last. An HD-ROM holds about 180 times more information
than
a comparably sized Compact Disc Read-Only Memory, or CD-ROM, today's
cheapest
data storage medium. Storage costs of HD-ROM are roughly one-half percent of
CD-ROM costs.


  The HD-ROM should find immediate application in archival storage and
data-intensive supercomputing, said developers Bruce Lamartine, a physical
chemist in Los Alamos' Materials Science and Technology Division and Roger
Stutz, a database and graphics engineer in the Nonproliferation and
International Security Division. Other potential data storage uses are land
and bank records, maps of oil deposits and seismic characteristics,
surveillance maps for defense, astrophysical catalogs, other scientific
data, audio and video masters and important cultural documents.


  "The HD-ROM marks a complete departure from existing data storage
technologies," Stutz said. "For the first time, a non-magnetic, non-optical
data storage system can be made from truly robust materials."


  HD-ROM materials are hard, non-malleable, non-flammable and don't react
easily with chemicals. Since the medium isn't magnetic, electromagnetic
fields can't destroy the data on HD-ROMs, unlike computer hard drives.
Information is written into the HD-ROM using a specially modified, focused
ion beam micromill developed by Lamartine. The writing process, called
sputter etching, removes material by atomic collisions in the region of
the ion beam.


  The Los Alamos process is unique because the ultrahigh vacuum environment
-- about as empty as outer space -- is the key to high data density. Data
are not smeared as is the case when writing at higher pressures. The device
routinely writes features as narrow as 150 billionths of a meter, a distance
equal to about 560 atoms.


  A computer controls the ion beam micromill, much like a dot-matrix
printer. It can etch binary features, such as those written on CD-ROM and
other computer data media, as well as letters, numbers or graphical images.
These varied formats can coexist on the same HD-ROM.


  While writing is done in a vacuum, the reading can be done in air. A
souped-up version of a commercially available atomic force microscope reads
the inscribed data. Interpreting the data is another concern. Computer data
come in the form of a stream of binary values expressed as tiny magnetic
domains on a computer disk, or as aberrations in the shape of the grooves
on CD-ROMs.


  "Interpreting computer data visually is as difficult as understanding
Egyptian hieroglyphs without the Rosetta Stone," Stutz said.


  To interpret this unformatted, unpunctuated stream, the reader needs
embedded protocol information that provides a code for the stream of bits.
This bit-stream interpreter resident in magnetic storage media is today's
equivalent of the Rosetta Stone, Stutz explained.


  The HD-ROM requires no bit-stream interpreter. For binary data, the HD-ROM
can describe in a human-readable format the instructions needed to read the
data. For letters, numbers or graphics, the reader can recover visually
apparent characters directly.


  "Recent articles have predicted that in 10 years, commercial magnetic
media may be able to store as much as five billion bits of information on a
square inch," Lamartine said. "HD-ROM technology already has demonstrated
storage nearly five times as large, and densities of 400 trillion bits per
square inch are possible."


  The advent of digital records was a momentous discovery because huge
amounts of information could now be stored in tiny spaces. But digital
storage media are much more vulnerable than stone tablets or even printed
documents. Magnetic fields, oxidation, materials decay and various
environmental factors can erase digital information.


  "HD-ROM is virtually impervious to the ravages of time whether from
material degradation due to thermal or mechanical shock or from the
electromagnetic fields that are so destructive to other storage media,"
Lamartine said.


  The high cost of storage forces many organizations to discard valuable
data. Stutz said NASA often is forced to get rid of satellite data and
images that aren't immediately useful, even though the information might be
of great future value. Among other organizations that would benefit from a
low-cost, highly durable data-storage medium are the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Library of Congress, astrophysics agencies and financial
institutions.


  Stutz said the technology ought to be in pictures. In fact, he and
Lamartine already have talked to film industry representatives about how
to use the ion beam writer to preserve movies from Hollywood's golden age.


  Lamartine and Stutz have applied for patents on the HD-ROM, the ion beam
micromill, the process of micromilling and their method for speeding up the
rate at which the etched information can be read. They are actively seeking
commercial partners who want to turn their invention into a product.


  For more information, contact Jim Danneskiold of Los Alamos National
Laboratory at 505/667-1640, 667-7000 or <slinger () lanl gov>.