Taipei – May 16, 2018 – Flash memory is a non-volatile storage medium. This means that data remains on the Solid State Drive (SSD) without power. There are however certain factors that can lead to data loss and data degradation.

Data Retention: Temperature and P/E Cycles

High temperature and frequent program/erase (P/E) cycles can both severely impact data retention. Every cell inside flash traps a negative charge that represents a binary value (e.g. 01, 10 etc.). These cells are generally very good at holding on to this charge, but every now and then some of the charge will leak out. Error correction code is normally very good at picking this up and fixing the problem.

High temperatures will, however, speed up the rate of leakage. Testing shows that the data retention of standard MLC flash decreases 168-fold when moving from 40°C to 85°C. This means data that would normally last 2 years, will experience issues in only 5 days! The problem is further exacerbated as the number of P/E cycles increases, meaning that SSDs in heavy-writing environments are particularly at risk.

iRetention^TM will periodically refresh data as data retention drops in challenging environments

iRetention™

Innodisk’s new iRetention™ technology tackles this problem through smart firmware and hardware innovations. An onboard sensor will constantly monitor temperatures, which along with the P/E cycle number is used to calculate how often to refresh the data. This is all handled by the SSD itself and will self-adjust to changes in the environment.

iRetention™ is perfect for devices that see extreme temperatures and thermal variation. This makes it suitable for application such as in-vehicle, automation, food processing, and aerospace and defense. Innodisk will showcase iRetention™ at this year’s Computex in Taipei:

Nangang Exhibition Center

June 5. – 9.

Booth#: 1F, J0618

About Innodisk

Featured on Forbes’ Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion companies, Innodisk is a service-driven provider of flash memory, DRAM modules and embedded peripheral products for the industrial and enterprise applications. With satisfied customers across the embedded, aerospace and defense, cloud storage markets and more, we have set ourselves apart with a commitment to provide customizable, dependable solutions and unparalleled service.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Innodisk supports clients globally with engineering support and sales teams in mainland China, Europe, Japan, and the United States.

For more information about Innodisk, please visit https://www.innodisk.com