3 ms·
What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?
by colordrops 3y ago
What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?
- tomnipotent 3y agoFor a modern SSD, it requires several transistors to store a byte so it's still transistors all the way down.
- irjustin 3y agoI'll be the first to admit this is a meaningless debate but seems fun! I'll say no We don't colloquial think of a HDD bit as a manufactured unit on magnetic disks. It doesn't have a direct macro connection/object. For SSDs the macro analog of a bit storage is a register and those are like 6 nand gates which those are made of like 3 transistors? Exact numbers are wrong I'm sure. It's been a long time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- smaddox 3y agoI'm not so sure. Last time I followed the field, modern HDDs were nanostructured, such that each magnetic domain was literally a physically distinguishable object, in a sense. I'm not sure if that's still the case, and I'm also not 100% sure that ever made it in to production, but I'm pretty sure it did.
- wbl 3y agoAt least as of the last time I read the domains were a pretty uncontrolled result of the crystalization and each bit is covering a few statistically. Nanopatterning of the sort your describing would let you make the bits smaller and hence weaker by ensuring a separation and friendlier magnetic environment.
- djmips 3y agoYou can still walk into a store and buy one transistor but you can't buy one storage bit. Not sure if that is an argument but interesting.
- throwaway173738 3y agoA toggle switch is one bit.
- smaddox 3y agoFlip flops existed before transistors.