Re: Cf Card vs DiskOnChip

[Mark Sienkiewicz <ms@wavix.com>]

>I'm sorry, I just don't have much respect for people who say things like
>'cost is more important than reliability'.  Probably becasue I've cleaned
>up their messes so often.

This guy is just asking about how to use flash.  He isn't going to include
the entire cost/benefit analysis of his project in the posting, so he just
summarizes it by saying "cost is more important".  There is no reason to
assume that he hasn't thought of the implications of the decision, or even
that he has any other choice.  If you make your product so expensive that
nobody buys it, it is a failure no matter how reliable it is.  Cost is
always an important factor.

>When designing an embedded system it's important to start by looking at
>your application rather than by looking at what technologies you
>understand and kludging the design to make it all fit.

But don't forget labor costs.  If I use a system that I already know
everything about, I don't have to spend time learning about it.
Lots of embedded industrial systems are just desktop PCs or ruggedized
desktop PCs for exactly that reason.  They work just fine, and for
a lower cost than some of the alternatives.

>I think someone needs to tell us what they actually need from a storage
>device, and then we can help them, rather than saying 'I need 128M of
>somethign exactly like a hard disc' which is clearly a specification
>derived from trying to make a desktop system embedded.

I don't think that is clear at all.  You can't tell the architecture of a
system solely by looking at storage requirements.  Maybe he just has a lot
of data.

Mark S.