Some Nano News

First, from IBM's Stuart Parkin, a new type of computer memory using nanowires.  Nanowires are quantum strands that are just a few nanometers wide, but are of an undefined length.  Depending on the material used for the nanowires, the magnetic fields and electrical current applied, these nanowires can be used to store 100's of bits in a solid state environment, i.e., no spinning disk and vibrating read head. 

IBM Attempts to Reinvent Memory

Stuart Parkin, an experimental physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, CA, says that the memory, which would pack a hundred bits of data on a single nanowire, could potentially store 10 to 100 times more data than flash--the type of memory used in digital cameras and other small portable devices--while operating at much faster speeds. And because it's solid-state memory, it would be far sturdier than magnetic hard drives, which require mechanical devices to read and write data. "In principle, we could be cheaper than flash would be, denser than flash would be, and orders of magnitude faster," Parkin says. "And there's no wear-out mechanism, so it's totally reliable."

IBM is a big company, and I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Parkin yet, but I've known about his research for some time.  His discoveries on thin-film magnetic structures revolutionized the physical storage industry, and gave us many of the small storage devices we use today like flash memory.  Its good to see nano technology coming to good use in the computer field, because I think this technology will be important to human survival in our not so distant future.

And here I thought our next generation storage devices would be Storing Light. 

Then we have this: 

Nanotube forests grown on silicon chips for future computers, electronics

The carpetlike growth of nanotubes has been shown to outperform conventional "thermal interface materials." Like those materials, the nanotube layer does not require elaborate clean-room environments, representing a possible low-cost manufacturing approach to keep future chips from overheating and reduce the size of cooling systems, said Placidus B. Amama, a postdoctoral research associate at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.

Nanotube forests for thermal conduction.  I see some real potential here for creating more energy efficient systems.  Our current generation of microprocessors generate an excessive amount of heat, heat that could potentially be used for other purposes, such as to power other devices.  I don't its too far of a stretch to consider using nano technology to develop micro electrical generators that utilizes heat.