Are there any USB flash drives in SanDisk’s portfolio that use SLC memory?
If not, I wonder whether there might be another possibility:
I understand that the difference between MLC and SLC lies not (or not so much) in the memory cells but in the controller. In case of MLC, the controller tries to squeeze four different values out of every cell, while it recognizes only two in case of SLC.
Therefore it should be possible to convert an MLC stick into an SLC stick by using a different controller, and sacrificing half of our storage space. If we’re very lucky, we can reprogram the controller without exchanging any hardware.
So the question is whether it would be possible, in principle, to reprogram the controllers that are used in SanDisk’s USB flash drives`?