May 4, 2010 – Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a computer chip that can store an entire library’s worth of information using "magnetic nanodots."

In the work, discussed as an invited paper at the recent MRS Spring Meeting by prof. Jay Narayan, focuses on self-assembled nanodots (e.g. Ni, Ni-Pt, Fe-Pt), a process found to be extendable from 2D to 3D structures. The ≤6nm-dia. nanodots, made from single defect-free crystals, integrated directly onto a silicon chip and precisely oriented in the same way. Each nanodot stores one bit of information; a nanodot-infused chip could be capable of storing over a billion pages of information in a square inch.

Narayan’s work in self-assembly and epitaxial nanoparticles goes back several years, in papers published in Applied Physics Letters (e.g., this one from 2008).

NC State says the chips with which the nanodots are integrated "can be manufactured cost-effectively." The next step is to devise magnetic packaging for these integrated chips, e.g. using something like laser technology that can effectively interact with the nanodots.