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How Flash Memory Works

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We store and transfer all kinds o f files on our computers -- digital photographs, music files, wor d processing documents, PDFs and countless other forms of media. But sometimes your computer's hard drive isn't exactly wher e you want your information. Whether you want to make backup copies of files that live off of your systems or if you worry about your security, portable storage devices that use a type of electronic memory called flash memory may be the right solution. Electronic memory comes in a variety of forms to serve a variety of purposes. Flash memory is used for easy and fast information storage in computers, digital cameras and home video game consoles. It is used more like a hard drive than as RAM. In fact, flash memory is known as a solid state storage device, meaning there are no moving parts -everything is electronic instead of mechanical. Here are a few examples of flash memory: Your computer's BIOS chip

An em ployee of Sam sung Electronics show s a 32-Gigabyte NAND m em ory card and chip. See m ore com puter m em ory pictures. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

CompactFlash (most often found in digital cameras) SmartMedia (most often found in digital cameras) Memory Stick (most often found in digital cameras) PCMCIA Type I and Type II memory cards (used as solid-state disks in laptops) Memory cards for video game consoles Flash memory is a type of EEPROM chip, which stands for Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. It has a grid of columns and rows with a cell that

OTHER MEMORY Virtual Memory How RAM Works Computer Memory Quiz

has two transistors at each intersection (see image below).

The two transistors are separated from each other by a thin oxide layer. One of the transistors is known as a floating gate , and the other one is the control gate . The floating gate's only link to the row, or wordline , is through the control gate. As long as this link is in place, the cell has a value of 1. To change the value to a 0 requires a curious process called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. In this article, we'll find out how Flash memory works and look at some of the forms it takes and types of devices that use it. Next, we'll talk more about tunneling.

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10 comments Derrick Brandonn University of San Francisco

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With the advancements in technology today, now you an option to create custom Flash Drives to represent your business products and services. To check for already available shapes, check http://w w w .usbpromos.com. You can get these flash drives of various shapes, designs and colors as per your business needs. Thereafter, you can use them even as promotional gift item also. Reply Like Follow Post April 8, 2013 at 2:13pm Sara John Follow Lodi, New Jersey 3,195 subscribers

good post about Flash Memory. http://tip-for-computer.blogspot.com/2012/02/flash-memory-can-be-w rong.html Reply Like Follow Post April 11, 2012 at 12:26pm Ryan Dale Top Commenter Works at Lamps Plus

I can hardly read that page. It looks like it w as w ritten in another language and translated into English by bad softw are. Reply Like September 25, 2013 at 10:44am Bobbie O. Beins Rogue Community College This w as very helpful, thanks. Reply Like Follow Post April 14, 2012 at 1:30am Shoaib Karim i Student tnx I got many things. Reply Like Follow Post February 25, 2012 at 8:27pm Khanw ali Ahm adzai Works at Kabul, Afghanistan thak u Reply Like Follow Post December 19, 2011 at 6:37pm Phyllis Clarke Oxford, Oxfordshire SDXC cards aand similiar used in camcorders, can you transfer onto computer, to edit videos. Reply Like Follow Post October 13, 2011 at 12:01am Suresh Rem o Dai school paiya. Reply Like Follow Post December 25, 2011 at 2:21pm Dem sey Euceda Ram os Reparo equipo electromecnico at Trabajo independiente exelent Reply
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