Magnetic Computers

Worldwide, it’s estimated that 2.7 zettabytes (that’s 2.7 followed by 21 zeroes) of data are currently being stored on magnetic media. Magnetic materials are tremendously useful for the task because they can retain information for long periods of time without consuming power. This has led researchers to investigate whether they could also be used to build computers and make them more power efficient.

Computer simulations have shown that magnetic wires 1/200th the diameter of a human hair can form “tornadoes” of magnetization (technically known as magnetic vortex domain walls). By encoding the clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations as zeroes and ones, they can encode binary data and create logic gates, which form the basis for performing calculations. In other words, magnetic materials could be used not only for storage, but also to process data more efficiently.

The next step will be to create experimental prototypes to determine if they can be made small enough and fast enough to become a viable technology.