Getting big flash onto motherboards. Will CF work? what will

[Chris Wilson]

Hi David,

> chris at netservers.co.uk said:
> >  I would guess that these are IDE-compatible then? So I guess I would
> > have  to use the mtdblock driver to drive it? 
> 
> No. The mtdblock driver is a vary simplistic 'translation layer' that 
> doesn't actually do any wear levelling or translation, just lets you use a 
> real flash device as if it were a block device.

Sorry, I meant mtdblkdev. Silly me =)

> that it must have different reliability characteristics. But there's no real
> reason for _everyone_ who makes CF to have implemented it so unreliably in
> the first place -- so maybe M-Systems have managed to do it properly -- they
> generally do seem to have sufficient clue. You'd have to test it.

Thanks for your answer, even though it's not encouraging news. I guess we 
will have to thrash some CFs to death to find out what's going wrong =( 
It's a shame because they are so expensive.

> The DiskOnChip is a different matter. That allows the system to deal with 
> real flash, so if there are problems you can fix them. Although in 
> practice, nobody _does_ seem to be dealing with the problems which 
> occasionally crop up with the DiskOnChip drivers. I still keep trying to 
> get our salespeople to find a customer who wants to pay for me to spend 
> some real time on them, but it hasn't happened yet :)

We'll consider it if I can persuade my boss that we shouldn't be using CF 
=)

Incidentally, do you or anyone know why there is such a big price 
different between CF, DoM and DoC for the same capacity?

Cheers, Chris.
-- 
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