Register Log in  Scientific Method / Science & Exploration  A
dozen atoms enough to store a bit—provided they’re kept near
absolute zero  IBM research has managed to store information in
tiny clusters of 12 iron …  Individual Iron atoms with different
orientations are shown in blue and white. Numbers indicate the
bits stored in each cluster.  Magnetic media has been the
mainstay of computer storage for decades. Just as with
processors, shrinking feature size—smaller clusters of magnetic
atoms—have allowed huge gains in storage density. Just as with
processors, though, these gains are starting to push up against
physical limits, as it's getting harder and harder to set the
magnetic state of a cluster of atoms without wiping out the
information on the neighboring clusters.  Now, researchers at
IBM have teamed up with collaborators in Germany and Switzerland
to store information using a related phenomenon,
antiferromagnetism. And they've shown that it's possible to
store a bit in a feature that contains as few a