Message-Id: <mailto:199508280133.UAA18494@library.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 11:29:33 +1000 From: Jennifer Brasher <mailto:J.Brasher@INS.GU.EDU.AU> Subject: HD ROM Versus CD ROM To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
I am not sure if this information has been sent to the general list, but it is an extremley interesting explanation of the new HD ROM technology, so I'll post it to all of you. Please excuse me if I've doubled up.I've just returned fromm a conference held by the Australian and New Zealand Art Librarian's Association,ARLIS/ANZ, 25 - 26 th August, 1995, held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney entitled "Pictures and Pixels: what's happening in art libraries?" where all these issues were discussed. Sydney is a stunningly beautiful place and we were remarking at the annual general meeting that it would be wonderful next time to have some overseas visitors attending!!!
We'll keep you informed.
From: mailto:R1647@VMCMS.CSUOHIO.EDU Date: Mon, 21 Aug 95 10:22:36 EDT To: mailto:j.brasher@ins.gu.edu.au Subject: HD-ROM article previously posted, FYI
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 00:00:13 -0500 Sender: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <mailto:PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 14:00:52 CDT From: Berna Heyman <mailto:blheym@mail.wm.edu> Subject: LANL ION BEAM STORAGE
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Thought that PACS-L members would find this news from HPCwire of interest.
LANL ION BEAM STORAGE HOLDS 180 TIMES MORE INFO THAN CD-ROMS June 23 SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS HPCwire ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
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 <mailto:slinger@lanl.gov>.
#026#************************************************************************ ***** H P C w i r e S P O N S O R S Product specifications and company information in this section are available to both subscribers and non-subscribers.
912) Avalon Computer 915) Genias Software 905) MAXIMUM STRATEGY 934) Convex Computer Corp. 930) HNSX Supercomputers 906) nCUBE 921) Cray Research Inc. 902) IBM Corp. 932) Portland Group 907) Digital Equipment. 904) Intel Corp. 935) Silicon Graphics 909) Fujitsu America 916) MasPar Computer
***************************************************************************** Copyright 1995 HPCwire. To receive the weekly HPCwire at no charge, send e-mail without text to mailto:"mailto:trial@hpcwire.tgc.com".
Bill Barrow mailto:R1647@vmcms.csuohio.edu
****************************************************************************** Jennifer Brasher EMAIL: mailto:J.Brasher@ins.gu.edu.au Art Librarian VOICE: 07 875 3132 FAX: 07 875 3133 SNAIL MAIL Queensland College of Art Library Griffith University Clearview Terrace Morningside Campus PO Box 84 Morningside Brisbane Queensland 4170 Australia ******************************************************************************
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
******************************************************************************