[NTLK] Linear Flash Card Questions

[Dan]

Well that is one type of ATA flash card.  There others with less space
but they are always slower than linear flash.  Usually the smaller the
card the better, but not always with regard to speed.

In general if you want speed get Linear Flash.  If you want cheap and in
general more storage that you aren't going to be writing to a lot, then
go with ATA flash.  Or if you can't find a good linear flash card.  But
they are still available and personally I would go that route if possible.

Don't get me wrong I am not putting down the ATA flash driver or such.
And I am very glad we have that option, but in genreal Linear Flash is
still much faster.  It is hard to find small capacity (and faster) ATA
flash these days.  Of course they are out there I am sure...somewhere.

-Dan

On 9/3/2012 7:02 AM, William Maloney wrote:
> Are these ATA Flash cards essentially an IBM MicroDrive?
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blank-96MB-PCMCIA-ATA-Flash-Memory-Card-for-Laptop-Telecom-equipment-industrial-/300685075820?pt=US_USB_Flash_Drives&hash=item46023a256c
> 
> Already used one of those. Tons of space but SLOW. The smaller 256MB
> CF card is way better but it keeps having hiccups and makes typing a
> bit annoying. Kills the responsiveness.
> 
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 8:59 PM, Dan wrote:
>> I think you are referring to linear flash not ATA FLASH which is what
>> William asked about as I have never seen a 4GB linear flash card.  Only
>> 32MB or perhaps 64MB. :)
>>
>> It is true that there isn't a speed difference between sizes of Linear
>> flash cards (although the larger the card the more heap they take...it
>> does not actually slow down the newt).
>>
>> ATA FLASH on the other hand is totally different and is much slower,
>> especially with the larger cards.  If I recall correctly you want to get
>> the smallest ATA flash card you can and definitely stay away from the
>> gigabyte sizes.  While they do work, they are very very slow.  I recall
>> someone on the list using a large microdrive flash card and it took all
>> day to load a few MP3 songs on it.
>>
>> -Dan
>>