NAND flash gets baked, lives longer

    NAND flash gets baked, lives longer


    Posted: 02 Dec 2012
    An article has been published in the December 2012 edition of IEEE Spectrum that highlights an interesting and potentially useful discovery by ROM manufacturer Macronix. Researchers there have discovered that applying heat to NAND flash cells can drastically extend their life, thus overcoming one of the biggest problems with the solid state storage technology.

    NAND flash is used everywhere, from smartphones to SSDs to thumb drives, and we've written extensively before on how it works. The technology's biggest failing is that NAND flash only lives so long. Every time the flash cells are erased, they retain some residual charge; eventually, they get to where it takes so long to make them change their charge level that they stop being useful as a storage medium.

    As NAND flash grows denser, it gets more delicate; in our discussion on the future of flash, we discuss the decreasing lifetimes of NAND flash and the potential alternatives. SSDs rely on complex mathematical gymnastics at the controller level to reduce writes and hence lengthen the life of their flash cells, but the need for those kinds of workarounds could be substantially lessened by the Macronix discovery.

    Read more at source:
    NAND flash gets baked, lives longer | Ars Technica
    Brink's Avatar Posted By: Brink
    02 Dec 2012



  1. Posts : 218
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #1

    Very interesting. Thanks for posting this, Shawn. I wonder... if periodic "baking" could extend the NAND lifespan significantly more.
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  2. Posts : 12,177
    Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
       #2

    First we bake graphics cards and now SSDs, there's no time to bake cookies
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 53,363
    Windows 10 Home x64
       #3

    I used to get baked in High School. Hopefully it will give me a longer life

    A Guy
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  4. Posts : 1,965
    win 7 X64 Ultimate SP1
       #4

    What Difference


    I've been baked. I've been fried. Neiither has helped me.
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  5. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #5

    When do we bake our desktops and laptops?:)
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  6. Posts : 218
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #6

    I've been baking my nads for quite some time with my laptop. That's probably why I'm living kid-free.
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  7. Posts : 5,092
    Windows 7 32 bit
       #7

    A Guy said:
    I used to get baked in High School. Hopefully it will give me a longer life

    A Guy
    It will just seem longer. Time drags when you're high. That's why watched pot never grows. :)
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