Re: reduce write access to hard disk

[Jonathan Schmitt <list@detla.de>]

>
>"Jonathan Schmitt" <list@detla.de> wrote in message 
>[🔎] 200510231812.07380.list@detla.de">news:[🔎] 200510231812.07380.list@detla.de...
>> Dear all,
>> I'm currently trying to build a low power/low noise computer and as a part 
>> of
>> the concept, I would like to use a flash card as the main storage.
>> I'm aware, that flash cards have only a limited amount of write cycles 
>> before
>> the cells wear out and therefore I'm looking for ways to reduce the number 
>> of
>> write cycles.
>> First of all, it is obvious, that swap partitions have to be avoided and
>> replaced by real ram, so currently I'm planing for 2 maybe even 4 GB of
>> memory.
>The kernel is less than perfect in terms of memory management and a knoppix 
>user noticed that creating a ramdrive for a swap partition actually 
>increased speed. (The problem might not actually be in the kernel, but 
>rather in programs requesting that memmory be placed in swap, and running 
>slower if swap is not available, but it has the same end effect).

Good hint, thanks for that one.

>Rather than using flash memory consider using SSDs which are dram-based, 
>battery backed-up drives.
>I'm not sure of the cost comparison to similar sized flash drives.

A 4GB CF with ~10MB/s read write speed sets you back around 230 Euro, the 
cheapest SSD I found was from Rocket Drive, where the 2 GB variant is 1600 
Euro and that is not a standard ATA solution, so probably no Linux driver.

If someone has a cheaper SSD solution, I'm all ears

>What is nice about flash though is that compact flash uses IDE. So you can 
>just buy a simple ide to Compact flash adapter to plug your CF cards into. 

That's the plan ;)

Thanks and regards,
Jonathan
-- 
The great merit of society is to make one appreciate solitude.
		-- Charles Chincholles, "Reflections on the Art of Life"