is this true? > about flash memory

[John Jay Smith]

that somehow flash memory wears out if you use it too much?
How can this be? its just a chip....

If so, I think this would apply to mp3 players that have flash memory..
right?

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[Galen]

In John Jay Smith had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

that somehow flash memory wears out if you use it too much?
How can this be? its just a chip....

If so, I think this would apply to mp3 players that have flash
memory.. right?

So they say. There's a finite value of writes to flash media at this point
in time. At the same time, I've never had any flash media stop working?
There's even an up-and-coming lappy with a flash drive IIRC. Someone posted
it in the news section of my forum. So, yes, it would apply to MP3 players
as well. Perhaps there's a structured set of data controls that writes to
unused sectors first and makes it run sequentially so that the drive lasts
longer? That, frankly, I don't know.

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Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[John Jay Smith]

The Spirit, and Oportunity rovers (they are like robots) sent to mars have
flash memories as hard drives
There is a 32 GB flash drive now... at this rate they will take over
the hard disk functions in portables and laptops....

Vista claims that it will be able to use flash drives as extra RAM.. this
will be insteresting to see....

kenny www.computerboom.com


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[Galen]

In John Jay Smith had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

The Spirit, and Oportunity rovers (they are like robots) sent to mars
have flash memories as hard drives
There is a 32 GB flash drive now... at this rate they will take over
the hard disk functions in portables and laptops....

Vista claims that it will be able to use flash drives as extra RAM..
this will be insteresting to see....

kenny www.computerboom.com

I can't even find a flash memory device that's failed here. Your question
made me start to think about it and, well, it's what the vendors have even
said in the past. This link appears interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory

Something there might be of value to you.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Bob I]

Yes it wears out. here is a good bit of info and covers that issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory

 

[John Jay Smith]

thanks....

the limitation only applies to erasing and not just reading existing data
on the flash...?
at least thats what I understand...

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[Bob I]

Correct.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

that somehow flash memory wears out if you use it too much?
How can this be? its just a chip....

If so, I think this would apply to mp3 players that have flash memory..
right?

Yes but that only applies to writing it, not reading it. You can read
all you want but eventually it will burn out if it's eternally written
to.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So they say. There's a finite value of writes to flash media at this point
in time. At the same time, I've never had any flash media stop working?
There's even an up-and-coming lappy with a flash drive IIRC. Someone posted
it in the news section of my forum. So, yes, it would apply to MP3 players
as well. Perhaps there's a structured set of data controls that writes to
unused sectors first and makes it run sequentially so that the drive lasts
longer? That, frankly, I don't know.

It's more of an issue for things that do a lot of disk writes. For
example, don't run a standard version of Firefox off a flash drive.

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

that somehow flash memory wears out if you use it too much?
How can this be? its just a chip....

If so, I think this would apply to mp3 players that have flash memory..
right?

Current specs list anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 write cycles. If you use
your Flash Ram too much, it will wear out.

Bobby

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Current specs list anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 write cycles. If you use
your Flash Ram too much, it will wear out.

But it would take a *LOT* of writing to reach even 10,000 cycles if
you're doing it manually. Redo your mp3 player every day and that's
still 30 years to reach 10,000 cycles.