Timing Properties of Removable Flash Media

Flash memories could be a basis for mass storage with real-time guarantees if a suitable model for access timing could be established. To characterize the operation timing of removable flash media such as Compact Flash (CF) and MultiMedia Card (MMC), we propose a set of benchmarks. The results of our study indicate that a simple timing model for current media cannot be established. The timing of individual read and write operations depends on the address and block size of accessed data as well as the written bit pattern. Many timing anomalies were observed.