Re: [Apple iPod] Hard Drive vs. Flash Drives

Plus, flash drive based iPods are less prone to mechanical issues
because there are no moving parts. Many people who wear their iPods
when exercising prefer the flash based version because it is less
likely to skip or get damaged.

Also, I believe that flash based iPods do not need to be unmounted
like hard drive iPods (at least the iPhone doesn't need to be
unmounted).

Flash drive technology is still in its infancy, so size and cost are
still big factors.

On Oct 14, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Michael Kersenbrock wrote:

> jeff01890 wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Does anyone know the advantages and disadvatanges of a hard drive
> based
> > iPod with larger memory and a flash drive based iPod with smaller
> > memory?
> >
>
> A hard drive based unit needs more memory than a flash based one
> because it has to cache reads off the disk while playing. Having
> more memory makes that more efficient (so that the drive can be
> off more of the time so it's not consuming power as well as probably
> being more mechanically shock resistant when off).
>
> With a flash based unit, it's not as big of a deal even if there are
> block-sizes associated with (NAND) flash filesystems. There is
> no spin-up times with flash so just doing a block or two at a time
> would be as efficient as doing ten at at time.
>
> In other words it just needs enough memory to be adequate, more
> than that probably doesn't help.
>
> Mike K.
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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