Andrew Halliwell <spike1@ponder.sky.com> writes:

> Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote:
>> At Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:46:45 -0700 Jim Moe <jmm-list.AXSPAMGN@sohnen-moe.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On 06/22/08 12:25 pm, Cork Soaker wrote:
>>> > Given that a lot of hardware is now coming with SSDs, and we all know
>>> > Windows will wear one of those little buggers out faster than anything
>>> > else, [...]
>>> >
>>> Really? "Wear out" a solid state device? Perhaps you can expound further
>>> how Windows manages to do such a thing?
>>
>> If the "Solid State Drive" is implemented with an EEPROM, then it is
>> possible -- EEPROMs have a limited number of re-write cycles.
>
> As do "FLASH" rom. Sometimes as low as 100,000 writes.
> Better not make a swap partition or swap file on those things...

A flash device without a wear-levelling controller will wear out in a
very short time if used with a normal filesystem. Filesystems like
jffs have wear-levelling built in, so they are suitable for such
devices. I would assume that flash-based storage devices intended as
hard drive replacements have suitable controllers.

--
Måns Rullgård
mans@mansr.com