1 #750 What's Flash Memory?
Ewan Smathers edited this page 2025-09-05 08:19:54 +08:00
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What is flash memory? It's a sort of memory that may retailer information with out energy and may erase Memory Wave in blocks. It's a sort of electronically erasable programmable read only Memory Wave Workshop (EEPROM). Computer systems store data on their memory chips in binary, which suggests all the pieces is reduced to a 1 and a 0. When the pc desires to learn the knowledge, it scans the memory chip and translates the 1s and the 0s again into something that we are able to read, or an image or a movie. Each character you're studying has been rendered from binary. However, the pc doesnt actually retailer the data as 1s and 0s. There are three different strategies it uses. The first technique is in random entry memory where the information is saved using electrons. A memory chip is made up of billions of capacitors. These capacitors are in a position to carry electrons. If a capacitor is holding electrons, then it's a 1 and if a capacitor is empty of electrons, then it's a 0. A single capacitor is a bit of knowledge and there are eight bits in a byte, so a byte has 8 capacitors.


"Hello" has forty different bits of knowledge, which is 5 bytes. A 16-gigabyte memory card has 128 billion capacitors. The capacitors can not hold the electrons when the computer is turned off, so RAM is just usable when the pc has energy. The second approach is on the laborious disk drive the place the knowledge is stored magnetically. The pc has a spinning laborious disk and it stores the information on it by marking microscopic strains that are magnetic. When the pc reads the information, each magnetic line is taken into account a 1 and every nonmagnetic line is taken into account a 0. The third technique uses transistors to hold a charge and this is how flash memory works. A transistor is fabricated from a conductive material like silicon or germanium. They'll take in electrons in the same means as a capacitor, but they dont lose them. In RAM, the presence of electrons makes a 1, however with flash memory, an electron charge makes a 0 and no charge is a 1. Because they dont lose their electrons, they keep the data when they are switched off as properly.


A transistor has two ends. The electrons can enter in by the one finish, called the source, and they will depart the transistor by means of the other finish, known as the drain. There is a gate at one finish and electrons are saved within the transistor when the gate is closed, being read as 0. If the gate is left open, the electrons go straight through and the transistor is empty, being learn as 1. With non-flash memory, when the ability is turned off, the electrons dont keep within the transistor. Flash drives must work when there isn't a energy source and this is done with something called a floating gate. A floating gate is a gate simply just like the one that keeps the electrons within the transistor, Memory Wave Workshop but it is separated from the transistor by a skinny, oxide layer. The oxide is an insulator however because it is skinny, electrons can move by it if there's a robust sufficient present.


When the pc writes to a flash memory, it uses sufficient present that the electrons fill the transistor, move throughout the insulating layer and stick with the floating gate. The computer makes use of sufficient current for the electrons to cross over the floating gate, however they dont have sufficient power to get back across, so they keep stuck to the floating gate. They can stay that manner for years with none extra energy and without loss of memory. While you wish to erase data from the flash memory, the pc supplies an electric current to the entrance of the transistor and a unfavourable charge to the gates. This repels the electrons on one aspect and attracts them on the other in order that they jump throughout the insulating layer and go away the transistor. Flash memory drives are very helpful as a result of they'll retailer the knowledge with out needing any power, but they cant be used indefinitely. Every time the gates are electrified, they put on a bit of. Completely different drives have totally different ratings however they are good for about 100,000 write / erase cycles earlier than they begin to leak data. And Memory Wave that is what I realized right this moment.