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Flash memory?

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JimZipCode:
I've always been a HDD guy for my DAPs.  (iAudio X5L)  But recently I bought a flash-based player (Sansa Clip+).

Wikipedia tells me there is a limitation on the number of write-erase cycles in flash memory:

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

How serious is this limitation?  Is it merely theoretical, in the sense that there is a limit, but my player will wear out long before I come close to it?  Or is it "real", in the sense that my drive will stop accepting writes while my player is otherwise usable -- say within a few months or a year?

Thanks,

Jim

Chronon:
The former.  The number of writes is something like 100,000.  In an idealized scenario where you completely re-write the memory every day you would only be getting 365 writes per sector per year.  It would take you 273 years to hit the limit.

Llorean:
And flash typically has wear-leveling which means even when you re-write a file, it puts it somewhere else in the flash, trying to make sure the writes are distributed generally evenly.

For the purposes of a digital audio player, it is extremely unlikely that "you used up all the writes of the flash" is ever going to be a cause of failure of anyone's player.

JimZipCode:
You mean my Clip+ is not going to last for 273 years??!?  ;-)

Thanks guys.

JimZipCode:

--- Quote from: JimZipCode on March 23, 2011, 09:50:23 PM ---You mean my Clip+ is not going to last for 273 years??!?  ;-)

--- End quote ---

Turns out, no.  If you drop a Clip+ in the glass of water you have on the bedside table, the player will not last 273 years.

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