Mike, > Most modern flash devices have cells that are writable at least 10 > times that - 100,000 cycles is the minimum you will find. Better > devices have even higher cycle counts.
Glad to hear, but I would still prefer a hard-disk whose lifetime is measured in "years", not in "cycles". > DOM products have FLASH in them - Nobody said anything about DRAM. > If they had DRAM they would have to be continuously powered. Sad how a simple "battery" is not included in such devices, so maybe low-power DRAM could be used for faster writes and longer lifetimes. > Products like Disk on Module that are designed as hard drive > replacements usually have better wear leveling capability than > standard USB "thumb drives", as the directory meta data update issue > is well known. SSDs take this to another level by "over provisioning" > which means including more capacity than is advertised so that they > will have enough spare capacity to make it to their rated lifetime. I have never used any sort of "solid state" memory devices to replace a hard disk, so the whole thought of "wear leveling" is a bit foreign to me. With hard disks, one just "uses them", with no need or worry about such techniques, for their 3- or 5-year lifetime. Maybe hard disks could last better, using a cache or other "access minimization" schemes -- But knowing how manufacturers make such disks last EXACTLY their "warranty period", I really doubt it! > For applications where fast access is required nothing can beat a > FLASH based device. Part of the equation there involves unit life; > if you use a FLASH based device in an environment with lots of writes > then you expect to be replacing it on an accelerated schedule. The > write and read throughput is far above what a conventional spinning > disk can provide, although the capacities are far smaller. Shall stay with hard disks, then. On my home "desktop" system, I am NOT concerned about absolute speed (not with UIDE, anyway!) nor power consumption, but I AM still "concerned" over all noted in this thread re: FLASH-disk "cycle limits"! For me, and I expect a LOT of others like me, a "garden variety" $40 hard disk should do just fine WITHOUT any such "concerns"! Jack R. Ellis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RSA(R) Conference 2012 Save $700 by Nov 18 Register now http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsa-sfdev2dev1 _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
