The millipede project

Is this the storage device for the future? with 4096 cantilevers, it can actually store  25 DVD on an area the size of a postage stamp!!!!! I remember in 2002 when it had "only" 1024 cantilevers…

The "millipede" high-density data storage system is based on micromechanical (MEMS*) components borrowed from atomic force microscopy (AFM). Tiny depressions created with an AFM tip in a polymer medium represent stored data bits that can then be read back by the same tip. Data written in this way can also be erased using the same tip, and the polymer medium can be reused thousands of times. This thermomechanical storage technique is capable of achieving data densities exceeding 1 Tb/in², well beyond the expected limits of magnetic recording.

Here is the page of the laboratory: Developed at the  IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland 🙂
Do not forget to access all available pages: Concept and components –  Read/write/erase process  – Recording technology – Servo and media navigation  – Small-scale prototype