Compact flash endurance diagnostics

[vinuxes]

Hello,
I am using Sandisk Extreme-IV 4 GB Compact Flash card on my
embedded system. The card is heavily written/erased, and so i am
worried about it's health.

Is there some way to make some sort of diagnostics? Something like:
- read/write/verify sectors
- determine state of wear leveling
- maybe more...?

I've read some CF spec and they say it is possible to get the number
of times a CF sector has been written to. The spec says:
The IDE "Translate sector" command (87h) apparently allows the host
a method of determining the exact number of times a user sector as
been erased and programmed.

Is this command supported by sandisk extreme-IV CF ?

Any help will be appreciated!

Rgds,
Vinod

[Michael Schnell]

I doubt that there is a way to decently define / check the wear-out
behavior of a CF card. The card's controller works perfectly to hide
this and the manufactures are not willing to disclose any information.
(See lots of threads in this newsgroup on that issue.)

The main problem usually is not that the card will totally fail due to
wear out (this is perfectly handled by the card's electronics), but the
fact that the time the card needs to complete an internal write process
is not defined in any way. So there is no knowledge on how long you need
to provide power to the card after initializing a write to prevent data
loss (which means not only the sector latest written is bad, but the
complete memory might be dead.)

AFAI read somewhere, there are some (very few) cards for embedded use
that come with extended specifications on that behalf.

-Michael