New technology could greatly reduce electric power consumption of computers

[kristopher]

New technology could greatly reduce electric power consumption of computers

Super-thin cobalt can lose its magnetism if a minus voltage is applied to it under room temperatures, a researcher has found.

The technology can be applied to magnetic memory chips in computers to substantially reduce their electric power consumption. The discovery, made by Kyoto University assistant professor Daichi Chiba, was put up in the online edition of the British science journal "Nature Materials" on Oct. 2.

Cobalt, an iron group element, has magnetism like iron and nickel. It had been known that cobalt loses its magnetism if heated to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

In his experiment, Chiba covered a 0.4-nanometer-thick layer of cobalt with an insulating film and applied 10-volt electricity to it to observe changes in its magnetic poles. He then confirmed that the cobalt completely lost its magnetism when minus voltage was applied to it. He also found that cobalt retained its magnetism when plus voltage was applied.

Some kinds of ...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111003p2a00m0na004000c.html

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. 1) Insulate 0.4um cobalt... 2) Apply ten volts... 3) ... ... 4) Profit !!

[Confusious]

2. Yep sure

still waiting on that damn holographic storage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc