Flash memory may not be as stable as I thought. I certainly didn't find
anything definitive but a quick web check located a couple references to
10 years. I'd have guessed more like 50 or 100. Aluminum DVDs probably
don't have a very long life due to corrosion although double-sided discs
may have much less problem there... no lacquer layer for air and
moisture to penetrate although the edges are still vulnerable. Gold
DVDs should have a long life of 50 years or more.
Note that when talking about flash memory I'm talking about the
stability of the already recorded bits. Flash memory also has a write
cycle limitation of 10,000 to 100,000 writes depending on design. Some
are supposedly up to 1,000,000 writes now.
Chuck Norcutt
WayneS wrote:
> At 06:45 AM 11/6/2008, Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
>> Just how stable is it, compared to a DVD for instance?
>> What could hurt it?
>
> Flash memory is probably more stable than DVD. DVD is subject to
> corrosion. Almost all microprocessors use flash memory for their
> programming, so the life of the processor is depending on the flash
> memory life.
>
> All good memory uses some kind of error correction, which can mask
> the underlying bit error rate as seen by the user.
>
> Perhaps the best storage would be some kind of archival print that
> can be re-read digitally.
>
> Wayne
>
>
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