So this is it – the last article in my mini-series on understanding flash. This is the bit where I draw it all together in a neat conclusion that makes you think, “Yes! That was worth reading”. No pressure eh?
So let me start with the conclusion first: as a storage medium, NAND flash is a royal pain in the ass.
Chaos
Why? Well, let’s look back at what we’ve learned in the previous 9 articles:
- Data stored in flash pages cannot be overwritten without an erase operation taking place first
- Erase operations affect entire blocks of flash pages instead of just the page you want to erase
- Erase operations are an order of magnitude slower than read and program (write) operations
- Flash media wears out and is limited by the number of program and erase operations (P/E Cycles) possible
- The performance of a flash package is unbalanced: for example,
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Musings 