Description

High-density data storage comprises three main technologies: random access memory (RAM); high-density magnetic storage and optical storage. (Biomolecular electronics is part of the Living Systems section.) High-density random access memory is contained on semiconducting materials lined with electric transistor circuits making up an integrated circuit.

Special Characteristics

High-density magnetic storage is characterized by the ability to store information as a pattern of magnetic domains on a thin layer of ferromagnetic material on the surface of a disk or tape. To meet the demands of the computer, the recorded information must have very high density (that is, each bit must occupy a very small area), and reading and writing must be done at very high speed. The highest densities available commercially are 20 megabits per square centimeter for tape and 10 megabits per square centimeter for rigid disks. The theoretical limit to magnetic recording density is very high- -about 16 gigabits per square centimeter for media based on iron. However, advances in other technologies such as recording heads are required before engineers can approach these densities. High density magnetic storage is critical to the success of the National Information Infrastructure and the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative. It also has a significant array of applications in national defense.

Impact on Economy

Advances in random access memory are simply the extension of current trends towards more complex integrated circuits for the purpose of supplying more functionality at reduced costs. RAM's relatively simple circuit designs serve as excellent testbed for advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology, as well as for creating and sustaining the information infrastructure.

Enhanced storage capacity will contribute to job creation in the information sector, and will help improve the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. It will be critical to improved health and education of the U.S. population. Among other things, improved delivery of health care depends on improved high-density storage as the volume of information about health care treatments continues to grow, and as the need to maintain patient information increases. Patient information will need to be stored in three dimensional images in the future, greatly increasing the need for enhanced data storage and high resolution displays.

Impact on Security

Parallel disk storage can have significant benefits to enabling warfighting capabilities. Military applications, including ballistic missile controls and multi-theater troop management, afford considerable challenges for rapid data storage and retrieval. Health applications, particularly biomedical research, often require similar high density, rapid access disk storage capabilities that could benefit from advances in this technology.

Worldview

Overall, the United States has a slight technology lead in data storage technology including a lead in rigid magnetic disk drives, the largest segment of the $65 billion worldwide computer peripheral equipment market. Producers such as IBM and Fujitsu, building disk units for their own equipment, account for nearly half of total production, with the remainder, the so-called merchant market, supplied primarily by five U.S. vendors--Seagate, Conner Peripherals, Quantum, Maxtor, and Western Digital. Leadership in rigid disk drive technology and fierce price competition have enabled these five U.S. manufacturers to dominate world markets. These firms are clear technology leaders in such advanced magnetic disk storage developments as high- performance magnetoresistive head assemblies and glass substrates. Japanese companies are forming alliances with U.S. firms, exchanging their production knowhow for U.S.-made designs.

What’s the use?

Optical storage systems offer high information density per unit area. Compared to magnetic storage systems, optical systems have generally had slower access times, but offer significant advantages over magnetic storage, for example because it offers the prospect of three dimensional storage. Optical storage media also offer significant advantages for military applications particularly those where magnetic storage would be considered a vulnerability or where high temperatures would disable systems. Applications include radar and other detection/targeting systems. Storage in optical form enables writing data to, and reading data from, storage media without physical contact with the media, thus reducing wear and providing opportunities for the use of a number of different media. CD-ROM is becoming increasingly popular for the input of text, images, and data that need only be written once. Optical and magneto-optical storage remain active basic research areas, with research efforts in the U.S., Japan, and Europe in particular.

Parallel disk storage can theoretically occur on any of the storage media currently available or in development, including diamagnetic and paramagnetic materials, ferromagnetic materials, and antiferromagnetic. The challenges to parallel disk storage development come in increasing the density and speed of recording activities. Currently, there is a tremendous challenge in the design of recording heads. Competing technologies are magnetic and magneto-optic technologies, all still in development. In addition, advances in software will need to accompany hardware developments in order to see the full potential of this technology.

Japanese, Korean, European, and U.S. firms are approximately equal in advanced DRAM technology--a significant change from the situation several years ago when Japan appeared in position to use its market share dominance to also attain a strong lead in technology. Leading firms from all regions are now producing 16M DRAMs, have developed 64M devices, and are well along in research on 256M designs. Japanese firms frequently dominate at technical conferences with the latest DRAM technology, but competitors generally have introduced DRAMs to the market at about the same time as the Japanese. The South Koreans, by concentrating government and industry efforts on the DRAM sector, are approaching--and, in the case of Samsung, exceeding--the Japanese in some aspects of DRAM device technology and manufacturing productivity. Some industry experts have rated Samsung's 16M DRAM as the world's most advanced and noted that Samsung also has the most advanced processes for producing them. In addition, Samsung beat the Japanese in moving to eight-inch wafer technology and equipment from the older six-inch technology for the production of its 16M DRAMs. As a result of its strength in device and production technology, Samsung became the first company to produce a million 16M DRAMs per month--a striking contrast to its two and a half year lag behind the Japanese leaders in reaching production of a million 256K DRAMs per month in the mid-1980s. The challenges of developing technology for future DRAMs and the billion dollar costs of fabrication facilities are forcing most firms into international research and production alliances. These alliances are resulting in a transfer and sharing of technology, which should keep DRAM technology roughly equal in all major geographic regions. Hitachi and Texas Instruments are cooperating on 64M DRAM R&D; IBM, Germany's Siemens, and Toshiba on 64M DRAMs and 256M DRAMs; Hitachi and South Korea's Goldstar on 16M DRAMs; and South Korea's Samsung and Japan's NEC on 256M DRAMs.