Hello again,
further to PCBman's reply to my original message;
I wrote:
My worry is this;
Although flash memory has a lifespan of approx. 100,000 read/write cycles,
> That should read "write/erase cycles" and depending on the chips used
could
> be
> anywhere from 100K - 1M
True! I was thinking of flash cards and the read/write voltages!(5v/5v or
5v/12v)
But any flash ram cards I have purchased have quoted 100,000 write/erase
cycles.
Perhaps this is an average amount, and I have no idea how this compares to
the flash ram
in the Newton's internal memory? Any ideas?
> As a block "dies" it is marked defective and is ignored from that point
on.
> The flash
> will continue to operate but with reduced capacity.
>
> Not sure if the Newton OS has any kind of "wear-leveling" but this would
> tend to
> increase the flash life by even use of the blocks.
I could be wrong here but I think that the Newton OS is not that
sophisticated in
this regard, and when a block or more die on a storage card anyhow, the card
is shot?
I think that laptops are better in this regard?
> When you store a pkg on the Newton it is written to flash. But once it is
> there, it
> will stay there until it is erased. As you run a program, a copy of it is
> put in dram
> and it runs from there. The data you put in it, also gets put in dram. It
> gets put in
> Flash periodically.
> I am not aware of the Flash being constantly written to and so it might
not
> get the kind
> of wear you first thought.
>
> Now I am a hardware Guy and you programmer types might shed some light on
> the inner software workings of the Newton that I have misunderstood.
I see what you mean, but this also means that even defaulting all new info
to a storage card,
the Newton's dram still gets used to some extent (of course).
Considering that I am entering up to 10-15 meetings and perhaps the same
amount of notes every day for 4 years plus,
apart from using it for e-mails, internet etc., I am still worried about
wear as I intend to use my Newton for the next 5 years+ at least.
But I think that you are correct in saying that the internal flash doesn't
get as much wear as I first thought.
Any feedback regarding heap/speed issues of storing all new info on storage
cards, and/or prospective life of the internal components of the Newton,
would be much appreciated,
yours,
Eric Byrne
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