IBM has three projects focusing on storage nanotechnologies.

Perhaps the most promising of projects at IBM are carbon annotates, which are molecule-size objects composed entirely of carbon in a cylindrical structure, giving them unique properties. According to Tom Theis, IBM's director of physical sciences, "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." Because of these properties, Theis says, "I can't imagine a more aggressive transistor technology right now."

Another way in which carbon nanotubes may be used is in the production of a high density, nonvolatile random access memory chip that could replace dynamic RAM, flash memory and even hard drives. Nantero Inc. in Woburn, Mass., has built prototypes of a chip called NRAM (for nanotube-based/nonvolatile RAM) that is faster than DRAM, as portable as flash memory, and able to provide permanent storage because the wafer uses nonvolatile storage as its basis. "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.

IBM invented two foundational nanotechnologies: scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), both of which modify materials at the atomic and nanometer scale. Capable of imaging individual atoms and positioning them one by one, these technologies lay the groundwork for manipulating data at a molecular level.

Another subatomic project at IBM is a high-density storage system known as "Millipede," which is being carried out in IBM's Zurich laboratories based on its so-called AFM technology.