IBM’s scientists have unveiled the smallest data storage device taking nanotechnology to the next level, according to Reuters.

Currently, a single bit of data requires a disk drive with one million atoms for storage. However, Andreas Heinrich’s research team, at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, have found that data can be stored on as few as 12 magnetic atoms, utilizing a new magnetic structure called antiferromagnetism, said Reuters.

Wired magazine explained, “IBM’s 12-atom bit-keeper uses an antiferromagnetic structure… meaning that the atoms point in opposite directions. This keeps the atoms from interfering with each other, an important feature when you’re storing data just 12 atoms at a time.”

The findings could yield “memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will consume significantly less power,” according to The New York Times.

Such memory chips and disk drives remain in the distant future however, because the 12-atom device operates at 1 degree kelvin, about – 458 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Wired. Bringing the nanotechnology up to room temperature would likely expand its size up to 150 atoms, said Heinrich.

Needless to say, reproducing such technology outside a lab is still impossible and would be very expensive. Heinrich told Reuters, “It took a room full of equipment worth about $1 million and a whole lot of sweat.”

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Heinrich talks about his research: