Flash Memory, Not Networks, Hamper Smartphones Most

Lucas123 writes "New research shows that far more than wireless network or CPUs, the NAND flash memory in cell phones, and in particular smartphones, affects the device's performance when it comes to loading apps, surfing the web and loading and reading documents. In tests with top-selling 16GB smartphones, NAND flash memory slowed mobile app performance from two to three times with one exception, Kingston's embedded memory card; that card slowed app performance 20X. At the bottom of the bottleneck is the fact that while network and CPUs speeds have kept pace with mobile app development, flash throughput hasn't. The researchers from Georgia Tech and NEC Corp. are working on methods to improve flash performance (PDF), including using a PRAM buffer to stage writes or be used as the final location for the SQLite databases."

Comments

Re:I would like faster flash memory

[Lumpy]

That "software bridge" is called the craptastic USB stack that Microsoft uses on windows 7.

Even if you open the iphone from the file manager and grab them by hand it takes forever. USB2.0 is utter crap for any large amounts of data transfer. Small single files? good, sustained data transfer is garbage. Apple was stupid for removing the Firewire interface from the ipod and iphhone.

12 gigs of photos over USB 2.0 is slow as hell simply because the USB2.0 speeds are slow as hell.