Hi all,

An article in the 12 July 1997 issue of _The Economist_
<http://www.economist.com> discusses the equivalent of Moore's Law for
discs. The article estimates that current disc drive technology will have
run its course by about 2010, with a final yield of 70-100
gigabits/square inch (compared with about 1GB/in^2 today).

"While holographic memory may rescue storage technology for a time (it
can take it to the equivalent of 1,000 gigabytes per square inch), atomic
level storage looks to be the long-term answer." The article notes that
IBM has reached 45 GB/in^2 in prototypes using this technology, with the
eventual intent to move individual atoms as storage elements, resulting
in storage densities of  1M GB/in^2. "Great stuff," the article
concludes, "but Microsoft Office 2030 will no doubt consume all that and
more."

A subsequent article discusses prospects for 256MB memory chips using
300mm (12-inch) wafers.

-- Bruce


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