How long does MP3 flash memory retain contents?

I think the memory used in MP3 players and USM memory sticks is called "flash" memory.

For how does this type of memory retain its conents WITHOUT any battery power?

Reply to
Jon D
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Most manufacturers are quoting in excess of 40 years. However other limitations may/will restrict this (there is a life span in terms of how often the chip is erased/written in particular).

Best Wishes

Reply to
Roger Hamlett

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I can see some results on the returned page, that list 10 years at 85C. When operated at a lower temperature, I would expect the contents to be retained for longer than that.

In one research paper in those returned results, they note that the retention time drops, with the number of program/erase (P/E) cycles. So the more you use the flash device, the retention time drops.

If your intention is to archive some information for posterity, then buy a new flash device, download the data to the device just once. Then, store the device in a cool dry location, preferably away from ionizing radiation. And then hope, that in

10 years time, computers still have an interface suitable for your flash device.

I have read of occasional problems with courier delivery of flash devices. It is possible that some equipment used to scan packages, has the ability to erase flash. So, once your valuable info is placed on the flash memory, hand carry it to its final destination (the cool dry place).

Paul

Reply to
Paul

snipped-for-privacy@needed.com (Paul) wrote in news:nospam-

0607060905590001@192.168.1.178:

Guaranteed, so long as we don't nuke ourselves to near-oblivion making computers a fond memory.

The IDE adapters that take a Compact Flash card and allow any OS to boot from them all at a cost of about $15 including the card, will probably replace the floppy disk as the main means of emergency booting for machines.

Anything that useful will probably last twenty or thirty yers. And flash memory of any decent capacity hasn't been around 10 years yet, it's just rated that way because no-one has had any for long enough to guarantee longer. At low room temperatures, it's likely to last a century. Just don't expect any firm to formally commit to any guarantee like that. :)

There is also USB. I seriously under-rated that interface, but the more I use it, the more it looks like something that can be used for the simplest tasks yet work fast enough for live video feed. Anything designed for USB, especially things like the C-media audio IC's that use native W98 support, will become so widely supported that in a century you'll find it far easier to find a way to read from storage than it is to find a clean vinyl LP now.

Reply to
Lostgallifreyan

Well, it probably depends on how far out you go. How many 8" floppy drives (or even 5"), or ST-506 hard drive interfaces can you find any more? It looks like interfaces are shorter lived than many data storage options nowadays.

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

I don't know about 8" floppies, but 5.25" floppy drives are still trivially easy to obtain.

As for a hard drive... realistically I don't think one can view them as "archival storage." CD and DVDs certainly would be, though, and a standard CD/DVD reader today can still read the discs put out some 15 years ago just fine.

Reply to
Joel Kolstad

Is Al Shugart still around?

We've still got a couple of full height 10mb drives, one made by Shugart Associates and the other a Seagate Technologies unit. Both full of discrete components and huge stepper motors, definitely not made like that any more...

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Prepair Ltd

William P.N. Smith wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yes, but that's my point. The thing that made me post was the awareness of the IDE to CF adapters. Once you have something like that you've got a mainstream format that really isn't going to fall by the wayside. Even the new SATA isn't going to send those to oblivion, and people will probably just make SATA to CF adapters for the same CF cards. They won't use the speed of SATA, but the cheap adapeters will mean that a standard format CF card is more likely to fall from grace before people become unwilling to make adapters for them. Being small, square, flat, robust, cheap, and good for at least a few GB, I think that's a format that will see useful life for decades.

Reply to
Lostgallifreyan

I have a couple half height TEAC 8" floppy drives, a couple hundred 5

1/4" floppy drives and lots of 5 1/4" drives and controllers. The problem with these is if it was for an XT (8-bit), you have to match the controller to the drive.

Shugart Associates was sued by Shugart and forced to change their name, so they chose Seagate.

The SA1004? I just scrapped a pile of them a year or so ago but I kept a couple for my collection. Anyone remember the 20 MB IOMEGA Floptical drive? I have a brand new one, still sealed in the display box. :)

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Actually, I think the CF flash will evolve to fit with SATA and eventually fuse the serial adapter and CF in one card of similar size. The main weakness of current CF cards is they have lots of contacts, that being their weakest point. But I doubt people with data on parallel CF cards will be left high and dry, there will likely be a long period of overlap during which both formats will be common. Anything smaller than a CF card would be too small and fiddly for most human hands to wield on a daily basis, especially in non-ideal working environments.

My guess is that once serialised, the adapters will use small LED/photodiode couplers, contain their own batteries or maybe use AC HF couplings for power transfer so they can be inserted into bays with no contacts. They'd be good for cleanrooms, or farmland. If you dropped one in the mud you'd wipe a fingertip along the edge after wiping most oif the crap off it, and you could insert it and expect it to work.

This is all nearly doable now, given small power converter circuits and optical coupling and a little more evolution and uptake of SATA, so we're nearly at a point where we have a format that might never need to change again, just as the basic form of the book has been settled for centuries. With books, people usually change sizes and such because they want to, not because they have to to gain further improvement. I think small general purpose storage is reaching that point, and to gain more capacity, only the internal density and speed will continue to change signifcantly.

Reply to
Lostgallifreyan

"Joel Kolstad" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Yep, agreed, the CDFS file system is a keeper. I think that as well as certain devices being so useful that interfaces will always be made for them while people will use them, file systems will also endure. FAT32 is a standard on CF cards, hence the easy adation to IDE controllers.

So maybe it;s not the device, OR the interface that really determines the longevity, but the file system alone.

Reply to
Lostgallifreyan

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