One of the issues with any kind of nonvolatile storage is how long can it retain data when power is off. In other words how long can you sore a computer & be guaranteed to be able to boot & run with out errors.
These three types of storage present different retention characteristics. While most can stay in storage for a year without loss The newer high capacity drives based on TLC or QLC flash may present a challenge after as little as 3 months in storage. The older SLC or MLC would most likely last a year or even a little more in storage without significant errors due to electron loss from the secondary gate used to store the charge. All flash drives will eventually loose enough electrons from this floating gate that errors will be created. The insulators on these gates were not designed to be very strong as the charge must be able to tunnel through in order to charge or discharge the floating gate. This over time further weakens the insulator to the point that it will fail entirely at retaining data for any length of time. In other words only relatively new or drives used in a situation that does not require a lot of writes may make it a whole year in storage. Such is the nature of flash.
Spinning hard drives on the other hand can retain data in storage for very long periods of time with out loss as it is based on magnetism & not charge storage. As long as it is not subjected to strong magnetic fields or rough handling the data should be good for several years.
This bring us to 3D Cross Point SSDs. even though Intel only guarantees these for three months storage if used in an enterprise situation, the same as flash drives I might add, I believe these drives would last much longer in a stored condition than flash based drives with out loosing data. The reason I believe this is the medium used to store the data does not use charge which can be lost over time but a physical change to the material is used to store the data. This change requires sufficient current to melt or partially melt the storage media to either form a conductive crystal or a non conductive amorphous state until a certain voltage is achieved. The currents used to write & erase this medium causes localized heat sufficient to melt even solder but the area is so small it only melts or partially melts the storage medium. Since this takes considerable energy to do the possibility of the physical material is unlikely to change states on its own. This means that long term storage of 3D Cross Point based drive should have good to excellent storage properties.
In spite of this though all SSD based systems should be backed up onto some sort of magnetic storage media if storing for long periods of time until more is understood about 3D Cross Points data retention characteristics as I could be wrong on the materials used in 3D Cross Point type drives stability long term.
These three types of storage present different retention characteristics. While most can stay in storage for a year without loss The newer high capacity drives based on TLC or QLC flash may present a challenge after as little as 3 months in storage. The older SLC or MLC would most likely last a year or even a little more in storage without significant errors due to electron loss from the secondary gate used to store the charge. All flash drives will eventually loose enough electrons from this floating gate that errors will be created. The insulators on these gates were not designed to be very strong as the charge must be able to tunnel through in order to charge or discharge the floating gate. This over time further weakens the insulator to the point that it will fail entirely at retaining data for any length of time. In other words only relatively new or drives used in a situation that does not require a lot of writes may make it a whole year in storage. Such is the nature of flash.
Spinning hard drives on the other hand can retain data in storage for very long periods of time with out loss as it is based on magnetism & not charge storage. As long as it is not subjected to strong magnetic fields or rough handling the data should be good for several years.
This bring us to 3D Cross Point SSDs. even though Intel only guarantees these for three months storage if used in an enterprise situation, the same as flash drives I might add, I believe these drives would last much longer in a stored condition than flash based drives with out loosing data. The reason I believe this is the medium used to store the data does not use charge which can be lost over time but a physical change to the material is used to store the data. This change requires sufficient current to melt or partially melt the storage media to either form a conductive crystal or a non conductive amorphous state until a certain voltage is achieved. The currents used to write & erase this medium causes localized heat sufficient to melt even solder but the area is so small it only melts or partially melts the storage medium. Since this takes considerable energy to do the possibility of the physical material is unlikely to change states on its own. This means that long term storage of 3D Cross Point based drive should have good to excellent storage properties.
In spite of this though all SSD based systems should be backed up onto some sort of magnetic storage media if storing for long periods of time until more is understood about 3D Cross Points data retention characteristics as I could be wrong on the materials used in 3D Cross Point type drives stability long term.
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