“In an acoustic delay line store (”memory”), bits are inserted sequentially into one end of a long metal wire as acoustic pulses, by means of a transducer (see below). These pulses propagate along the wire at the speed of sound, until they arrive at the other end where they are translated back into electrical pulses by another transducer.”

http://www.science.uva.nl/museum/delayline.html

This torsional delay storage was the later version of acoustic delay lines previously made using mercury tubes.

The real questions are access times and data density. Disks are extremely dense at this point, but probably can go a bit further before limits kick in. (There’s still no good reason why a 5″ “half-height” form factor couldn’t be used in desktop machines – Lord knows how much data could be stuffed on one of those nowadays. The itty bitty notebook drives aren’t necessarily where it’s at….

What worries most people about spinning memory is mechanical safety, and, at some point, data volatility due to single-bit (or worse) errors due to mechanical issues. (Remember what “Spinrite” was supposed to do?)

Non-rotating material (”solid state”) is probably where it’s going to end up. Some seriously large devices already exist, and even bigger ones are possible….

I’m not sure about the article’s technology – seems like an “overkill” response, and there’s nothing new except perhaps the implementation.

Regards,

Stu.