A story in yesterday's New York Times is touting nanotechnology as the answer to that Holy Grail of personal computing, the instant boot up.

"This technology could enable instant-on computers that boot and reboot without delays and eliminate the need for internal disk drives on computers," says Greg Schmergel, CEO and co-founder of Nantero in the article at computerworld.com that NYT drew on.

Also quoted was Tom Theis, IBM's director of physical sciences, saying, "Nanotubes with diameters of only 1.5 to 2 nanometers possess many times the strength of steel and conduct electricity as both a metal and a semiconductor. I can't imagine a more aggressive transistor technology right now."

IBM has three nanotech projects running right now, and many other companies are hard at work developing storage nanotechnology that promises to shrink by tens or hundreds of times the space required to fit today's data. (photo fronius.com)