It doesn't matter if the the special FRAM memory cells in this gadget are good for 200+ years. All modern electrical stuff is <i>hellishly</i> complex, from a materials engineering PoV, and there are many other parts of this flash drive that will likely fail in <2 centuries. Plus, why would you believe that (working) systems able to read USB drives will be available in 200+ years?<p>SO - unless the data you're storing is worth a major effort by future computer historians, just find an old daisy-wheel printer, and save your 8K to archival quality paper. That'll be good for a thousand years or so.
<a href="https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2024/03/03/archiving-data-on-paper/" rel="nofollow">https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2024/03/03/archiving-data-on-...</a><p>200k on paper.
30k if you don't want to require an actual sheet scanner to read it.<p>To read it requires software, but it's open source software not tied to any particular hardware or os platform, and you use any kind of imaging hardware you want of the time. It doesn't matter how much cameras or os's change in the future.<p>Also FRAM reading is destructive. FRAM internally destroys and re-creates the data every time it's read. MRAM does not. idk offhand how the two compare on things like data loss from environmental stresses like extended periods at
low or high temperatures, or thermal cycling etc.
That's pretty cool, but we're already past a few generations of devices that were supposed to store data for decades and we no longer have computer with interfaces to use them. What are the chances that people will know what USB is in 50 years?
The post[0] that seems to be this article's source would be a better link.<p>The Tom's article spins it as a pointless storage device and pushes the key feature of it including a built-in serial terminal text editor down under several paragraphs of snark.<p>I'm not telling you to buy one and I don't know who needs one, but it's a bit unfair to judge it as an archival storage device when it doesn't even seem to be trying to be one.<p>One extra pedantic point: assuming one could reasonably expect 200 years out of not only the FRAM but the rest of it as well... you don't really want your <i>really good data</i> to survive 199 years before a catastrophic slightly early failure so maybe leave instructions to access and/or duplicate the data before, say, half-time (100 years).<p>[0] <a href="https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/05/15/blaustahl-usb-storage-device-8kb-fram-200-years-data-retention/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/05/15/blaustahl-usb-storag...</a>
Could just buy the chip itself for less than a dollar, connect it to Arduino or rpi and write it yourself: <a href="https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/lcsc_datasheet_2112091730_FUJITSU-MB85RS64PNF-G-JNERE1_C8741.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/lcsc_datasheet_2112091730_FUJ...</a><p>Or go with the 64kb version for 6 dollars.
The comments here are getting hung up on the 200 years claim. The point is not that the information will last literally 200 years; it’s that it will last long enough for you to transfer it to a more modern medium when the time comes.
In general it's good to have products with reliability as a first class citizen, but the best way to keep data for lots of years is to replicate them onto a reliable media from time to time.
Obviously this is just niche market to try and commercialize FeRAM.<p>But the long term storage angle doesn't make much sense to me, you can get 8kb in a couple of QR codes.<p>Much better would be to market the number of read-write cycles as the USP over flash - so you could use it as some kind of constantly updated but persistent, encryption key or parity code or whatever.
It would be good for storing passwords that you don't want to lose (assuming the USB drive is stored in a safe place.... Like in a safe or under your bed)
Now I'm curious what other parts of this device could last 'over 200 years.' Whats the next weak link on the chain? Is contact corrosion the ultimate limiting factor?
Do things like the upgradable firmware and integrated text editor live in a path that's separate from the 8KB of data? If not I'd fear it would die before the actual storage did.<p>I also vaguely recall that Sonic 3 used this storage type? Like it was a weird outlier for cartridge-based saves IIRC.<p>Edit: Yeah, it did:
<a href="https://hackaday.io/project/13425-sonic-3-feram-adapter" rel="nofollow">https://hackaday.io/project/13425-sonic-3-feram-adapter</a>
> The Blaustahl USB storage device by Machdyne features 8KB of FRAM and is designed for long-term text storage, potentially lasting over 200 years. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller<p>Contradiction in terms.<p>I mean, maybe i'm asking too much, but a reliability training for journalists, will be nice. /s