Concerns About Data Integrity & USB Pen Drives
July, 2005
It's a little known fact that the vast majority of production of the wafers used to store data on these very useful devices (sometimes referred to as "flash memory") are intended for use in digital cameras,where the largest file size currently to be seen is around 3MB. However when used for data storage file sizes can be very much larger especially since the capacity of these devices is growing almost by the month, 4GB devices are not unusual.
Here's the problem; in an effort to reduce cost the wafer thickness has been coming down over the last twelve months from .18 microns to the current .065 microns. This thinness of wafer exposes the device to bit-errors, compromising the integrity of the data. Inferior controllers cannot cope with large file sizes and therefore drives of this quality should not be used for data storage since the integrity of the data written to the device can not be guaranteed.
One manufacturer we have been working with, M-Systems believe that their controller, using superior in-house algorithms, is capable of correctly handling file transfers up to 20GB, well within the comfort band of current storage capacities. Reflex strongly recommend that only pen drives of a known quality should be used for data storage and do not warrant that their encryption system EPM is compatible with lower quality products. Please contact Reflex for advice on this issue if you are considering data storage on USB devices.
Here's the problem; in an effort to reduce cost the wafer thickness has been coming down over the last twelve months from .18 microns to the current .065 microns. This thinness of wafer exposes the device to bit-errors, compromising the integrity of the data. Inferior controllers cannot cope with large file sizes and therefore drives of this quality should not be used for data storage since the integrity of the data written to the device can not be guaranteed.
One manufacturer we have been working with, M-Systems believe that their controller, using superior in-house algorithms, is capable of correctly handling file transfers up to 20GB, well within the comfort band of current storage capacities. Reflex strongly recommend that only pen drives of a known quality should be used for data storage and do not warrant that their encryption system EPM is compatible with lower quality products. Please contact Reflex for advice on this issue if you are considering data storage on USB devices.
