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Postcards from Tomorrow's Data Centers

Kevin Fogarty April 16, 2013 08:00 AM Today's data centers are essentially the same: long rows of metal racks stocked with machines, miles of cable, and elaborate cooling systems. But just because we build data centers this way in 2013 doesn't mean that's how it will be in ten, twenty or fifty years. Here's a few glimpses of what the future might hold, from printable electronics to nanotube processors to nuclear batteries.

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Magnetic Tornados for Massive Storage

Photo: Magnetic Vortices

Image Source: Peter Fischer, Mi-Young Im, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Painting information in long strips is not the only way to store data on ferromagnetic disks. Under the right conditions, ferromagnetic disks form magnetic vortices; that is, tiny tornadoes that can be manipulated to store data faster and more densely than today's RAM, without needing a power connection to keep it from forgetting.

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