Kclug Digest, Vol 42, Issue 11

[Eric Johnson]

On Jan 11, 2008 3:18 PM, Luke -Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:
> On Friday 11 January 2008, gary hildebrand wrote:
> > I would say since those thumbdrives are solid state, theoretically they
> > should last forever, barring fire, flood, act of God, or static discharge .
>
> Uh, no. Flash drives are known to have a limited number of writes after which
> they get stuck. That's why you never put swap on a Flash drive.

Agreed. Run without swap if you are running off of flash, unless you
like making trips to MicroCenter.

There is a significant lifetime difference between low and high
density flash. (I forget the actual technical names.) The low density
lasts longer and it is also faster. Technically, this is because each
memory location in the low density holds one bit (and is read simply
high or low) while the high density holds 2 bits per location (which
requires more precise reading of intermediate steps).

The difference in lifetime is roughly "It will last a year" versus "It
will last until I die". The difference in cost is pretty significant,
also. The good ones are the high-end, high-speed ones sold mainly for
photography purposes.

---

I just looked it up - it's SLC vs MLC.
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=partnerContentDetail&articleid=CA6319917

-- 

Eric Johnson

"Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure,
there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness."
Saint Augustine