this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why do SSDs have a more limited number of times data can be written to them, but RAM memory can handle loads of re-writes? (self.explainlikeimfive)
submitted 1 year ago by lemmington_steele to c/explainlikeimfive
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In a similar vein, why can we not use the technology of RAM to prolong the life-cycle of an SSD?

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[โ€“] AlmightySnoo 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In a RAM you're just trapping current in a loop inside a logical circuit and the state that you get, since it will be stable until it's reset, is just a memorized 1 bit. You're not changing anything physical there.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_cell_(computing) (not an ELI5 though)

Wikipedia animation of a basic logical circuit that allows you to do that using NOR gates:

An animation of a SR latch, constructed from a pair of cross-coupled NOR gates.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That is static RAM (SRAM). Most RAM in computesr is DRAM, which works a bit differently and is much cheaper and denser, but more difficult to operate.