For all you embedded hackers out there...

[Tom Metro]

Ask Bjørn Hansen wrote:
> Tom Metro wrote:
>> But are those "MicroDrive" cards solid state or mechanical drives?
> 
> They are mechanical.

That's what I thought. Thanks.


> I used to use them in my digital cameras because of the price ("340MB 
> for only a few hundred dollars!" I think it was at first)...

Hard to believe that a precision, miniaturized mechanical device 
containing dozens of parts can be manufactured for less cost than some 
photo etched silicon.


> Good news: you should be able to write on them many more times than on a 
> flash based card (which relatively easily can be worn out by writes).   

True. Don't most of the modern-day Flash file systems include wear 
leveling algorithms to avoid writing frequently to the same area? Using 
RAM drives for stuff like /tmp also helps.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/

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