Re: A2 CF Card users - Trend Setters

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Bryan Parkoff wrote:
> "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message 
> io-dnXX7TfZj4hzbnZ2dnUVZ_sSmnZ2d@comcast.com">news:io-dnXX7TfZj4hzbnZ2dnUVZ_sSmnZ2d@comcast.com...
>
> > Jeff Blakeney wrote:
> >
> > >  To: Michael J. Mahon
> > > On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:10:07 -0700, Michael J. Mahon wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > 2 * 1024 = 2048 32MB partitions.  ;-(
> > >
> > >
> > > You had me scratching my head there for a second trying to figure out
> > > where you got the 2 from.  It would have been clearer to me had you
> > > written it like so:
> > >
> > >    64 * 1024 / 32 = 2048 partitions
> > >
> > > In english, that would be a 64 GB storage volume multiplied by 1024 to
> > > get the size in MB then divided by the largest ProDOS volume size of 32
> > > MB to get 2048 partitions.  :-)
> >
> > I was just revealing how I think about it.  The the 2 is there because
> > 64 is 2*32, and 1024 is the conversion from MB to GB.  Or:
> >
> > 64  GB
> > ------  = 2 * 1024
> > 32  MB
> >
> > The mind is a peculiar thing, and we all have computational shortcuts.
> > I always try to "cancel" terms first, and leave multiplying and dividing
> > as a last resort.  ;-)
>
>
> Michael,
>
>     Good formula -- thought...Better formula like this below?
>
>     1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 64 = 68,719,476,736 bytes
>
>     68,719,476,736 bytes / 512 bytes / 65,536 blocks = 2,048 32MB partitions

As I noted, I prefer not to multiply out to "atoms" if I can avoid it.
I learned to compute with a slide rule, and my habits are clearly
different from the "calculator generation".  ;-)

For me, the best calculation is the one avoided.

>     I would say CFFA card is excellent for backup better than tape and 
> DVD-/+RW.  I always avoid purchasing DVD-/+RW video recorder for TV / movie. 
> I wait couple years later before CFFA card is going to replace DVD-ROM discs 
> at Blockbuster Video store.
>     Try to make huge thousand discs to fit into one CFFA card.  What about 
> 64GB RAM chip?  RAM chip ceases to exist.  Tiny thousand RAM chip is bult-in 
> CPU chip so there is no RAM chip on the motherboard.

While flash memory continues to climb the density curve, and other
non-volatile memory technologies are vying for attention, you may
have a long wait for flash memory that is as inexpensive as magnetic,
or even optical, disk--which also continues to climb its own density
curve.

Flash is displacing magnetic recording at the "tiny" end of the scale,
so there won't be any more 1" disks, but a flash replacement for my
800GB of disk storage would cost ten times as much as my computer,
rather than a fifth of its cost.

Consider the "opportunity cost" of not having the recording facility you
desire for a decade!  Better to go for the economical solution today and
then convert it to flash later, when that's economical.

And, of course, there are some physical limits to consider that will
prevent simple scaling from keeping flash on the Moore's "Law" curve,
and they aren't that far away.

-michael

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