6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Flash Memory | Drawbacks & Benefits of Flash Memory

What is Flash Memory ?

Flash memory is a kind of Erasable Read Only Memory (EEROM) which has the capability to clear and rewrite data. It is non-volatile meaning it can hold data even without the presence of power. Based on the way of addressing read/write data, flash memory is of 2 types. Those are the NAND flash memory and NOR flash memory.

 

How does Flash Memory work ?

Flash memory is built using Solid State Chips. Each of these chips contain array of flash memory cells. Instead of traditional electrochemical method, flash memory uses semi conductors for storing data. Flash memory is one and only type of semi conductor memory making it one of the important forms of storage medium. While flash memory has gained immense popularity there are some drawbacks that limit its universal adoption. These factors needs to be considered before using this storage medium.
 

In this article, I will be examining about 6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Flash Memory | Drawbacks & Benefits of Flash Memory. Through this post, you will know the pros and cons of using Flash memory.
 
Let's get started,

 

Advantages of Flash Memory

 
1. Speed
 
Flash memory posses high transferring speeds. Compared to a traditional hard disk drive, flash memory does read/write function at a fast rate. However the factors latency and IOPs are considered, Solid State Drives still tops in terms of performance.
 
 
2. Durability
 
Flash memory does not contain any moving parts. It solely depends on electrochemical processes. Having no any moving parts means that it is more durable as well.
 
 
3. Form Factor
 
Most of the flash memories comes in different forms. More or same capacity can be packed in smaller units, making it require less space to accommodate data storage.
 
 
4. Reliability
 
Over the span of last 70 years, hard disk drives are continually improved in terms of reliability. However still flash memories outrank them. This is again because of the fact that it lacks moving parts. Reliability of flash memories makes it recommended to be used in mobile devices.
 
 
5. Efficiency
 
Flash memory requires no physical parts for its operations. Hence, there is very less number of energy required for its functioning. And also due to this fact there is no noise produced as well.
 
 
6. Portability
 
Another benefit of flash memories is that it is highly portable. Therefore, they are mostly used in devices those are small and light weighted.  Examples such as USB memory sticks and camera flash cards.

 
 

Disadvantages of Flash Memory

 
1. Cost
 
Based on the cost per gigabyte basis, flash memories are always expensive than traditional hard disk drives drives.  This is because hard disk drives are less expensive to manufacture and has been for very long time. Therefore, usually business of small budgets prefer HDDs over other forms of flash memories.
 
 
2. Effectiveness
 
Most NAND flash drives use a process called Program/Erase to storing data. Unless the number of new writes are reduced, this process eventually wears and tears down the flash drives. As a result flash memories does not have the capability to hold up heavy write loads.
 
 
3. Lifetime
 
Al though flash memories are more durable than a traditional hard disk drive, it does not posses infinite lifetime. It eventually degrades upon applying high voltages across transistors. However most flash memories won't wear down until completing at least 10000 rewrites.
 
 
4. Capacity
 
Generally most or all of the flash memories does have a problem reaching higher capacity as hard disk drives. Only Solid State Drives those are of flash memories comes with higher capacities. But that too under rare circumstances. 

 

SSDs too have a problem reaching 1TB in size. Besides this all the flash memories with greater capacities tends to get performance issues. Therefore, capacity is always a concern in flash memories.
 
 
5. Editing Works
 
Another drawback of flash memories is that it rewrites data in block units. If it is done one by one for each bytes, it can take considerably long amount of time. 

 

Due to this the editing time has been cut down significantly. However this process does not ensure that each block can be edited specifically.
 
 
6. Physical Damages
 
Flash memories especially those are of memory cards are prone to damages. They can be easily smashed or lost. Sometimes electronic corruption can make the card unreadable. 

 

Likewise the issue can be addressed to SSDs too. They can be damaged if handled improperly.