Fewer new x86 boxes are offering CompactFlash sockets as was the defacto-standard for many years. In addition, the price of CF cards seem to be going up.
On the other hand many SATA SSD storage offerings start at 64-128 GB and overkill for an AstLinux system and priced accordingly. Given that, we may have found a good SATA SSD that balances, capacity, price and durability. SanDisk U110 mSATA/SATA SSD http://www.sandisk.com/products/ssd/sata/u110/ Of interest are the mSATA and 2.5" SATA versions. For AstLinux testing I have purchased a couple off ebay... mSATA - "SanDisk U110 SDSA6DM-032G" http://www.ebay.com/itm/161405317721/ 2.5" SATA - "SanDisk U110 SDSA6GM-032G" http://www.ebay.com/itm/151394742857/ The U110 include capacitors for power-loss protection: SanDisk - Unexpected Power Loss Protection - White Paper http://www.sandisk.com/assets/docs/unexpected_power_loss_protection_final.pdf And a small amount the the U110 flash is configured as SLC for a write cache (nCache). The U110 2.5" case is plastic (not metal) but in some situations that may help conducting heat from the bracket *into* the SSD. BTW, no mounting screws are provided. So far in my testing they work well, I'm trying to abuse them :-) The SanDisk U110 series seems like a good match for the boxes we use, but who knows how they will perform longterm. The 32GB parts have an endurance spec of 20 TBW (TeraBytes Written), which related to AstLinux voicemail storage often writes to disk the most... -- Voicemail Writes: 26 KB/sec (.wav, .WAV, .ulaw) Endurance: 20 TBW (32 GB) -> 3500 minutes/day, every day for 10 years -- So even if the 20 TBW is somewhat best-case there is plenty of margin for a typical Astlinux system. The SanDisk U110 series also offers 16GB versions, at 10 TBW endurance, somewhat less expensive but harder to find at this time. Finally, SanDisk offers a nice "SSD Dashboard" application, but only for Windows, view info, update firmware, etc. . Though I was able to run it using VMware Fusion on OS X using Windows 7 via a USB 2.0 connection and this adapter: http://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/USB-3-SATA-adapter-cable-with-UASP~USB3S2SAT3CB SanDisk SSD DASHBOARD INSTALLER (Windows Only) http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15108/~/sandisk-ssd-dashboard-support-information It is too soon to say if the SanDisk U110 SSD series is a great AstLinux storage option, do your own research and try one if you want to test. Lonnie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Astlinux-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to [email protected].
