How does data storage work?

[Brissinger6]

Hi guys!

 

I need to do an essay about nanotechnology and since Linus changed me into a computergeek, I thought I would make something about computers. My idea was to talk about the latest changes on data storage but specifically on hard drives, SSD's and about spintronics in the future.

 

Could you guys help me to understand how they work?

With the hard drives, I understand that it uses little magnetic fields to determine whether it's a zero or a one. But how does the needle change the magnetic field exactly? And which states equals a zero or a one?

 

I've read once on a site, that SSD's are already making use of quantum mechanics, is this true? A sort of tunnelling effect I remembered. 

 

 

Thank you for the help :-)

[unidentical]

The needle, if I remember right either deposits or removes electrons.

 

SSDs currently are just flash memory, I think the quantum computing side of things is all theoretical/experimental (the sort of thing being done by universities) I'm pretty sure that's still prohibitively expensive for mass production.

You could probably get much more concise explanations off of wikipedia (and with citations at the bottom)

[Godlygamer23]

The hard drive changes the area to a positive or negative, thereby equaling a one(positive) or zero(negative). A computer chip then interprets the data and converts it into binary code. Hard disk platters are coated in a very very thin magnetic film, which makes them magnetic. You might find this helpful.http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hard-disk.htm

 

Also, no SSDs don't use quantum mechanics. It's just transistors switching on and off. (changing the "position" to represent your data)

[Whaler_99]

moved to storage area