[Coco] Totally OT: Terabit memory device

[jimcox at miba51.com]

Hi Bill:

I remember something like what you are talking about and 
from what I remember, it was an optical memory device 
attached via fiber or some other means of transmitting 
light  to it(?)  The size sounds about right.  

It's still AM here and I am only half way through my first 
coke, so I may be a little fuzzy with my memory :)  I 
think the reason why it may be shelved is that it's too 
far ahead of other technology to work, or it was one of 
those great ideas on paper, but in the real world, didn't 
work.

I work with Fibre Channel storage systems and right now, 
and using 18 GB drives, it takes about 6 4U chassis full 
of drives to make a TB. There are larger drives available, 
so the size of the system depends on the drives used 
(largest Fibre Channel (FC) drive that I have seen listed 
is around 140G so only one 4U chassis is needed, but those 
are quite new)  FC drives go through rigorous testing and 
spin at 15K so they are somewhat expensive.

There was an article on Slashdot about 4 months ago about 
a 2TB solid state array being purchased by "a government 
agency" (the agency wasn't listed)  It consisted of two 7 
foot racks of solid state memory connected via several 
hundred FC adapters.  That must be some data base they are 
looking at :/

Jim

PS: Yes it is spelled "Fibre" :)

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 00:04:42 -0700
  "Bootstrap Bill" <wrcousert at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Back in 1991 or 1992, I read an article in the Orange 
>County Register
>(California) about a new memory device that was being 
>developed by a chemist
>at UCI.  It was about the size of a sugar cube and had no 
>moving parts,
>somehow using a mesh of lasers to read and write. Storage 
>capacity was about
>a terabit. The access speed was comparable to RAM at the 
>time. The article
>went on to say it would take about a decade to get it to 
>market. The ten
>year mark was passed a couple years ago.
>
>Has anyone heard anything about it? Are they ready to 
>test it?
>
>-- 
>"It's easy enough to be pleasant, when life hums along 
>like a song.
>But the man worth while is the man who can smile when
>everything goes dead wrong.".
>
>
>
>
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