If you are looking for a «stick» or USB memory that will survive several generations, the Blaustahl pendrive made in Germany lasts 200 years.
NAND flash memory is widely used today, in SSD drives, pen drives, internal storage of mobile phones and laptops, etc., because it is very fast. But it is not made to last.
Modern storage drives use very fast memories, at the cost of a limited life expectancy. The NAND flash memory used by pendrives, SSDs and micro SD cards lasts between 16 and 20 years, with temperature conditions that do not exceed 33 degrees Celsius.
The Blaustahl indestructible USB memory, which can now be purchased, is even faster than conventional ones, thanks to the fact that it uses FRAM memory. Of course, it only has 8 KB. While it may not seem like much, you can fit a lot of important things into that small amount of space.
An 8 KB USB flash drive from FRAM that goes a long way
FRAM memory or ferroelectric RAM memory is an ultra-low consumption memory, with a high writing speed, and with the capacity to support up to one million read/write cycles.
It can store data for up to 200 years, at a maximum temperature of 35°C. The higher the temperature, the less life expectancy. The Blaustahl pendrive offers only 8 KB of FRAM memory, which it manages with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller.
It includes an integrated text editor compatible with PuTTY, Tera Term, Minicom, so you can write whatever you want on the pendrive, without the need for additional software.
The most shocking thing is that it only offers 8 KB of space. That’s just 8,182 bytes. In text, approximately 8,000 characters, a document of about four pages. It doesn’t seem like a lot of space, but four pages of text goes a long way when it comes to important information you want to preserve.
The manufacturer Machdyne explains that its function is to store passwords, cryptocurrency private keys, notes/lists, Geocaching, time capsules, or for developers who work with FRAM memory. At the moment it does not offer encryption, but they are working on a new firmware that will include it, with an update.
If you are interested, the Blaustahl pendrive, which lasts 200 years, is for sale on the Machdyne website, at a price of 29.95 euros plus shipping costs. They ship from Germany.