Introduction to Flash Memory -- It is used more as a hard dr

Speed: ? RAM ? >> ? FLASH / EEPROM? >> ?Hard Drive ?? ?

Physical?mechanical :

?FLASH: ?electronic,??no mechanical parts,sans-serif; font-size:16px; line-height:19.1875px">20% of the power,sans-serif; font-size:16px; line-height:19.1875px">one hundred times faster than traditional mechanical hard drives.

? ? ? ? Hard drive: ??mechanical parts

Flash storage is any data repository or system that uses flash memory. The size and complexity of such systems ranges from portable USB jump drives to enterprise-class array-based memory systems.

Flash storage uses electricity and has no mechanical parts. It typically consumes 20% of the power and reads more than one hundred times faster than traditional mechanical hard drives. Data center managers looking for ways to address the energy drain represented by hard drives are examining flash storage as a way to achieve green computing or green data center benchmarks. Businesses with I/O-intensive applications,such as credit card processing systems,?have also found flash storage to be efficient and cost-effective. As a result,enterprise storage providers like EMC,chip makers like Samsung and server manufacturers like Sun Microsystems have all entered the flash storage market.

Flash memory?is an electronic?non-volatile?computer storage?medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.

Flash memory was developed from?EEPROM?(electrically erasable programmable read-only memory). There are two main types of flash memory,which are named after the?NAND?and?NOR?logic gates. The internal characteristics of the individual flash memory cells exhibit characteristics similar to those of the corresponding gates.

Whereas?EPROMs?had to be completely erased before being rewritten,NAND type flash memory may be written and read in blocks (or pages) which are generally much smaller than the entire device. NOR type flash allows a single?machine word?(byte) to be written—to an erased location—or read independently.

Flash memory is used for easy and fast information storage in such devices as digital cameras and home video game consoles. It is used more as a hard drive than as RAM. The data retention of flash memory can be as long as more than ten years. A few examples of Flash memory:

• Your computer's BIOS chip
• Compact Flash (most often found in digital cameras)
• Smart Media (most often found in digital cameras)
• Memory Stick (most often found in digital cameras)
• PCMCIA Type I and Type II memory cards in laptops
• Memory cards for video game consoles

• It is noiseless
• It allows faster access
• It is smaller in size
• It is lighter