I am always in need of more storage space, but I don’t think I will need 1,073,741,824 megabytes of storage in five years…will I?

Well it looks like one inventor has already come up with a way to get to the Petabyte mark and is hoping to see a drive hit the commercial shelves in around five years.

Thomas has accomplished this impressive gain in capacity through non-contact optical spintronics. Current data storage methods are able to control the direction electrons spin around a molecule, but not the spin of the individual electrons. The electrons spin randomly, which works against the best electrical signal. Thomas is able to get the electrons spinning in the same direction. This change makes all the difference, apparently.

According to Thomas, controlling the direction of spin will allow for much smaller electronic devices. He is in discussions with manufacturers in Japan and expects to see prototypes in two or three years, with commercial products in four or five years at a cost in the range of $750.

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