The major limitation in using semiconductor memories is the cost per bit of the stored information.
Solid-state storage has seen similar dramatic reductions in cost per bit.
That is, it has more information per bit, or a higher entropy.
In the past, he said, the cost per bit stored dropped by a factor of four with each new chip generation.
In general, the technology that scales to the smallest cell size will end up being the least expensive per bit.
Tape remains a viable alternative to disk in some situations due to its lower cost per bit.
Note that 8-cycle per bit has nothing to do with bytes.
And even then, what work they did required a scanning tunneling microscope per bit.
The number of magnetic transitions per bit is on average 1.5 (50%*1 + 50%*2).
This dominance has led to high production-volume components, which in turn have allowed extremely low cost per bit.