My use of the Clip+ may not be typical. I listen to a lot of radio and podcasts. If I can ever solve the record problem on my 4 GB Clip+, I plan to record 7 to 8 hours of FM radio per week (time shifting). This recording is straight PCM, and so uses a lot of memory. I also listen to a lot of podcasts. When I am done listening, I delete the program to make room for the next one. I figure that over a 2 week period, I will cycle through the whole memory and then some.
Aside: I hope the operating system is smart enough to cycle through the whole memory, and not just reuse the same memory segment over and over, since I will seldom totally fill the whole memory.
Question: Does anyone know the rated cycle life of the internal memory? I assume it is flash memory, not static RAM kept alive by the battery. I realize that answering this requires either insider knowledge, or someone may have disassembled a Clip+ to see what is inside.
Years ago, flash memory could endure thousands, if not tens of thousands of erase/reprogram cycles. That endurance has decreased a lot over the few years as the feature size of the memory cells has continued to shink. I believe some flash memories are now rated in the hundreds of cycles, which could mean that my Clip+ would be trashed after a few years.
