Mechanical Memory Switch Outstrips Chip Technology

PhysOrg: Fast, Robust, and a Blast from the Past, Mechanical Memory Switch Outstrips Chip Technology:

Basically a return to mechanical methods of data storage and data processing only on a nano-scale. It coudl have several advantages not least of which is lower power consumption which could be increasingly significant especailly as they apear also to hold the potential to break the size barrier [as in smaller size]. Whod have thought it?

"When put through their paces as data storage tools, these nano-sized devices were capable of functioning at densities that far exceed the physical limitations of electromagnetic systems and could retrieve information at speeds that cruise in the megahertz and gigahertz ranges, millions and billions of cycles per second, respectively.

Mohanty also found that the switches operated on miniscule amounts of power, about a million-fold less than that demanded by current systems"