An old USB1 memory stick died, so I was curious to see just what was in it.
One side of the pcb contains the main 2GB memory array (a Samsung chip)

The other side contains the micro (U3), together with its crystal (U6), for doing the housekeeping. There is also an unpopulated space for another memory array.

Amazing. No doubt a more modern stick would be even more impressive.

 

Braggart!

Here's mine:


Maybe I'll get another one next year.

John

 

All NAND FLASH storage devices need to have a microcontroller to implement ECC, bad block marking, and wear leveling. To keep the FLASH devices inexpensive, they have to tolerate manufacturing defects.

The innards of a 64GB MicroSD card would be interesting to see.

 

The innards of a 64GB MicroSD card would be interesting to see.

... and a challenge to photograph clearly with the average camera!

 

Just open up an SSD then you wont need a better camera .

 

Maybe I'll get another one next year.

My first USB FLASH drive was 64MB. I paid $30. That will get you about 1000X more storage now.

 

I'm not playing the "mine is bigger than yours" game .

 

I'm not playing the "mine is bigger than yours" game .

No no in electronics the kudos is "mine is smaller than yours" lol.

 

What is interesting is that your 2GB memory chip contains 2G = 2,147,483,648 bytes. Or 17,179,869,184 bits (approximately).
How much chip area is available for each bit? Don't forget a lot of the chip area is used for interconnections and decode/programming logic.

And 2GB is fairly small by today's standards!