Understanding Flash Memory
One of the most important new developments in digital technology in recent years is the use of Flash Memory, sometimes called “flash RAM.” There are dozens of flash memory formats on the market today and making the right choice when buying one can make the difference between spending an arm-and-a-leg and buying the right tool for the job. We’ll help you understand what flash memory is and how it works.
You can find flash memory in many of today’s electronics such as digital cameras, portable music players such as the Apple iPod and Microsoft Zune, cellular phones, video game consoles and more. Unlike RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory can continue to store information in the absence of a power source. Flash memory is often used to hold control code such as basic input/output system (BIOS) in personal computers. But where does flash memory come from and how does it work.
The History of Flash Memory
Dr. Fujio Masuoka invented flash memory in 1984 while he worked at Toshiba. The name “flash” was suggested by one of Dr. Masuoka’s colleagues, Mr. Shoji Ariizumi, because the process of erasing data from the cells of flash memory reminded him of a cameras flash. In 1984, Dr. Masuoka presented this new technology to the IEEE meeting in San Jose, CA and Intel saw the potential of his invention. Soon after, Intel released the first flash chip in 1988 and flash memory was officially born.
How Does Flash Memory Work?
Flash memory is a form of non-volatile computer memory that is electrically programmed and erased. Flash memory is a type of EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) chip. It has a grid of columns and rows that have transistors at each intersection. A thin layer of oxide separates each transistor from each other. One transistor is called the floating gate and the other is the control gate. The link between the two gates is called the wordline and as long as the link is in place, the cell has a value of 1. If the link is broken, the cell’s value becomes 0. To change the value of a 0 cell, a process called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling must occur. When Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling occurs, electrons in the cell are altered. With the altering of the electrons, your data is either programmed or erased.
How to Access Flash Memory
There are several different formats of flash memory cards on the market. Fortunately, they all serve the same purpose of storing data. What dictates which type of card you use is the type of card your device requires. If you have several devices that use different flash memory cards, multi-card readers are available. Some multi-cards readers can be installed into one of your computer’s drive bays and others are connected via USB or Firewire to your computer. Once installed, your flash card will appear as an additional drive letter.
The Future of Flash Memory
The next evolution of flash memory is the replacement of hard disk drives. Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations of hard disk drives or it latencies. The idea of computers using flash memory hard drives is very attractive, considering that flash memory is faster, noiseless, reliable and consumes less power than hard disk drives. There is one unattractive aspect to flash memory replacing hard disk drive, the price. The cost per storage ratio of flash memory is significantly high than that of hard disk drives. It will take some time for flash memory to catch up to the capacities of hard disk drives and to become as affordable as hard disk drives. Nonetheless, flash memory is the future of storage and is slowly becoming the mainstream memory choice of many.
Leave a Reply