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Archive for April, 2011

Flash memory gets its name due to its microchip arrangement in such a way, that its section of memory cells gets erased in a single action or “Flash”.
Both NOR and NAND Flash memory were invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka from Toshiba in 1984.The name ‘Flash’ was suggested because the erasure process of the memory contents reminds a flash of a camera, and it’s name was coined to express how much faster it could be erased “in a flash”. Dr. Masuoka presented the invention at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Jose, California in 1984 and Intel recognizes the potentiality of the invention and introduced the first commercial NOR type flash chip in 1988, with long erase and write times.

Flash memory is a form of non-volatile memory that can be electrically erased and rewrite, which means that it does not need power to maintain the data stored in the chip. In addition, flash memory offers fast read access times and better shock resistance than hard disks. These characteristics explain the popularity of flash memory for applications such as storage on battery-powered devices.

Flash memory is advance from of EEPROM (Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) that allows multiple memory locations to be erased or written in one programming operation. Unlike an EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory) an EEPROM can be programmed and erased multiple times electrically. Normal EEPROM only allows one location at a time to be erased or written, meaning that flash can operate at higher effective speeds when the systems using; it read and write to different locations at the same time.

Referring to the type of logic gate used in each storage cell, Flash memory is built in two varieties and named as, NOR flash and NAND flash.
Flash memory stores one bit of information in an array of transistors, called “cells”, however recent flash memory devices referred as multi-level cell devices, can store more than 1 bit per cell depending on amount of electrons placed on the Floating Gate of a cell. NOR flash cell looks similar to semiconductor device like transistors, but it has two gates. First one is the control gate (CG) and the second one is a floating gate (FG) that is shield or insulated all around by an oxide layer. Because the FG is secluded by its shield oxide layer, electrons placed on it get trapped and data is stored within. On the other hand NAND Flash uses tunnel injection for writing and tunnel release for erasing.

NOR flash that was developed by Intel in 1988 with unique feature of long erase and write times and its endurance of erase cycles ranges from 10,000 to 100,000 makes it suitable for storage of program code that needs to be infrequently updated, like in digital camera and PDAs. Though, later cards demand moved towards the cheaper NAND flash; NOR-based flash is hitherto the source of all the removable media.

Followed in 1989 Samsung and Toshiba form NAND flash with higher density, lower cost per bit then NOR Flash with faster erase and write times, but it only allows sequence data access, not random like NOR Flash, which makes NAND Flash suitable for mass storage device such as memory cards. SmartMedia was first NAND-based removable media and numerous others are behind like MMC, Secure Digital, xD-Picture Cards and Memory Stick. Flash memory is frequently used to hold control code such as the basic input/output system (BIOS) in a computer. When BIOS needs to be changed (rewritten), the flash memory can be written to in block rather than byte sizes, making it simple to update.
On the other hand, flash memory is not practical to random access memory (RAM) as RAM needs to be addressable at the byte (not the block) level. Thus, it is used more as a hard drive than as a RAM. Because of this particular uniqueness, it is utilized with specifically-designed file systems which extend writes over the media and deal with the long erase times of NOR flash blocks. JFFS was the first file systems, outdated by JFFS2. Then YAFFS was released in 2003, dealing specifically with NAND flash, and JFFS2 was updated to support NAND flash too. Still, in practice most follows old FAT file system for compatibility purposes.

Although it can be read or write a byte at a time in a random access fashion, limitation of flash memory is, it must be erased a “block” at a time. Starting with a freshly erased block, any byte within that block can be programmed. However, once a byte has been programmed, it cannot be changed again until the entire block is erased. In other words, flash memory (specifically NOR flash) offers random-access read and programming operations, but cannot offer random-access rewrite or erase operations.

This effect is partially offset by some chip firmware or file system drivers by counting the writes and dynamically remapping the blocks in order to spread the write operations between the sectors, or by write verification and remapping to spare sectors in case of write failure.
Due to wear and tear on the insulating oxide layer around the charge storage mechanism, all types of flash memory erode after a certain number of erase functions ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000, but it can be read an unlimited number of times. Flash Card is easily rewritable memory and overwrites without warning with a high probability of data being overwritten and hence lost.

In spite of all these clear advantages, worse may occur due to system failure, battery failure, accidental erasure, re-format, power surges, faulty electronics and corruption caused by hardware breakdown or software malfunctions; as a result your data could be lost and damaged.

Flash Memory Data Recovery is the process of restoring data from primary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally. Flash memory data recovery is a flash memory file recovery service that restores all corrupted and deleted photographs even if a memory card was re-formatted. This can be due to physical damage or logical damage to the storage device. Data even from damage flash memory can be recovered, and more than 90% of lost data can be restored.

Your quest for cheap web hosting has finally come to an end, because if you keep reading you would get to know not only how to find cheap web hosts around every corner on the internet but also how to find cheap web hosts who are also good service providers, have a large customer database, extensive support and professional security, too good to be true? Read on.

Balance is the key, find the balance of services and the price they are offered at. Finding the right balance makes the most difference. The problem with most web hosting beginners is that it is not as easy task all the time to find a web hosting provider with proper balance. But if you are looking for a web hosting providers who are in your pocket’s range and you still want to make the best of them, look for the following elements, which you must acquire in your affordable package to get the maximum out of your web hosting experience.

The four ‘S’ of cheap web hosting, the Speed, Security, Services and Support.

Speed:
Speed is the first and foremost factor to be considered when buying a web hosting package that already seems compromised in financial terms. How to tell if your web site is going to be speedy enough ‘before’ purchasing the web space? simple, just observe the downloading and response speed of the web hosting provider’s web site, which obviously (and its never wrong) is hosted on their own web servers. If the provider’s web site is working fine and loading fast and is very responsive then chances are that by choosing those hosts, your website would have the same attributes.

Security:
Now if you don’t have corporate money in your pockets, do not mean you have to compromise on the security of your data, and your website. Security is a key issue when deciding to chose a web host. Read as much as is available on the host’s web site about their security measures and preferences. Talk to their customer representatives and ask them questions about their security. Find out about some of the previous customers of the company and send them and email requesting information about the web hosting performance of the said company. Gather as much information as you can, remember, the more you know, the more secure you are.

Services:
Your affordable web host must offer you some of the very essential services without any additional fees. These services would include features like Control Panel; the front-end software to manage the whole of your account in a point and click manner, additional domains, sufficient disk space, comfortable bandwidth, email addresses, built in scripts and programs e.g. the message board, website statistics. Some web hosts even provide search engine submission services on very low cost shared web hosting solutions. So what is basically required here is just a proper research on the available options and their comparison with each other.

Support:

And last but not least is the support. The web hosting support must be 24/7 and the service must be online with beginner help and FAQs. This ensures that the web host have a huge customer database and they are manned enough to cater to the needs of there customers and offer them quality product and services not to mention top notch security. Though you must not forget to document all the contact information about your web host off of their website and somewhere with you, this is because incase of a web server downtime you would know where to contact the web hosts off site, because there own web site may probably be hosted on the same web server and may be down along with all the rest of the websites.

When you find all the above specifications along with a good price in a web host you would definitely know that you have finally found a good web host. You would be certain about this discovery of yours when you have the best speed, top security, user friendly interface, option of additional scripts and software and the most important, you would be happy about the price.

I have reviewed and experienced many web hosting providers. I have used expensive and cheap and found out that some of the very best ones were the cheap ones. So you must also be always on the hunt for the next best company out there offering just a tad more than what you are getting now, maybe in the same price or maybe even in less because they do exist. Go ahead and do your basic research to find a cheap web hosting company with all the above qualities, that way you will not only just save money, you will be having a rare and pleasant time doing it all.

Designers especially the newbies go frantic on how to go about it. It has to be attractive, engrossing, user-friendly and functional. Thus, unraveling the secrets will definitely bind the website.

So, what are these layout secrets?

Together let us unfold them one after another…

1. Centering it all is no good. The secret is doing the contrary and not centering everything. The latter will just make the page disorganized, strewn and drab. The alignment may also seem weak and wanting.

2. The use and mastery of contrast is indispensable. Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive. The use and mastery of it in color, value, size and weight will greatly affect the site’s appearance and edge. In fact a typeface may appear bigger with the use of contrast in color. The latter can also affect the look of organization of the page. At a glance, a page may appear organized or the exact opposite. That is the secret of contrast.

3. Apply deviations if necessary. Most of the designers practice nowadays is to develop a ‘uniform-pages’ look. They try to use same background colors and other peculiarities to establish similarities to the homepage or other pages. But the fact is that viewers can be easily bored with that scheme. Viewers always want something new and by giving them a repetitious work, they are pissed off and transfer to another site where they can feast both their eyes and mind.

Placing lines in between contents also manifests division. Instead of using these lines, use blank ‘buffer zones’. This way what are created are invisible lines to make the effect subtle.

4. Do not forget that functionality is the king of web development. Moreover, keep the content and information full, tight and pretty useful. Use the space, don’t waste. Only leave a small percentage for blank spaces. Use the space cleverly in order for the website not to look crowded at the same time loose. Multiple columns are also advisable in order to maximize space.

These four topmost secrets in page layout are so crucial that to break them may spell disaster or the end of your precious site.