Re: flash replacing hard disks?

In article <3qfl2eFeico1U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, cecchinospam@xxxxxxxxxx says...
> Keith R. Williams wrote:
> > In article <1Cw0f.1428$xD7.360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> > redelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
> >
> >>Del Cecchi <cecchinospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >>>ipod nano. 4G flash. The nano replaces the ipod mini
> >>>which had a 4 or 6G hard disk drive.
> >>
> >>>How long before laptops with 20G of flash instead of a hard
> >>>drive come along?
> >>
> >>Well, there are some cost issues. IIRC, flash is still around
> >>$50/GB while HD is a fifth or tenth that.
> >
> >
> > Hundredth. It isn't impossible to find 100GB drives for $50. I bought a 160GB
> > drive for $80 months ago.
> >
> >
> >>A longer term issue is around filesystem design. Flash has a
> >>limited number of re-write cycles (10k?) and some designs (FAT*)
> >>or usages (access times) may concentrate writes enough to cause
> >>critical failures.
> >
> >
> > I was wondering that too so I pulled up some Spansion datasheets. They claim
> > 100K[*] for their "mirror bit" technology and 1M[*] for the "floating-gate"
> > parts.
> >
> > [*] Numbers are "typical".
> >
>
> But I don't need that much storage in my laptop. 20G would certainly do
> it and I could probably get by with 10. I am at 13 now. But I could
> get rid of some stuff.

I likely *could* get by with 10-20GB (IIRC this laptop has 30GB now - plenty
free). Hard disks don't come smaller than 20-40GB now. Flash is still
expensive though. Adding $500 (10GB) to the cost of a laptop won't sell. At
least I'd rather put that money into the display.

> So, when will the crossover get close for 20G? Be nice to not have to
> worry about "click of death" or other hard drive failures on a laptop.

"Click of Death" was a Zip drive failure mode, wasn't it? IMO they were
useless without being unreliable.

Laptop drives seem to be pretty robust, at least when not in operation. OTOH,
if flash were free it would be nice, yes. The write cycle limitation worries
me in this application though.

--
Keith
.

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