Now for the more “interesting” side, at least from a silicon standpoint, although (again befitting ADATA’s low-cost aspirations) comprising only two chips: Off with the top:įirst is a closeup of the “boring” side, solely comprised of vias, traces, and a few passives: Reflective of these devices’ low price and slim profit margin (counterbalanced by high volume) characteristics, the bill of materials and assembly costs are equally svelte. Getting inside-in contrast to the microSD card previously discussed-was thankfully straightforward thanks to the seam running around the sides: Here, for example, is a (still working) 8 GByte one:īack to our 16 GByte victim, now with the USB connector exposed and as usual, accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. More generally, they come in various colors and sizes. They tout USB3 interfaces (to be precise, “USB 3.2 Gen1 (USB 5Gbps), backward compatible with USB 2.0”) this one is 16 GBytes in capacity (accurate in this case, to boot). But please don’t grade me too harshly, dear readers, because I didn’t give up on my nonvolatile-portable-memory dissection dreams! Offered for your backup-plan consideration is an ADATA Technology UV128 USB flash drive (sometimes also called a “flash stick” or “thumb drive”…the history behind them is pretty interesting) which had at some point in the past (my memory’s fuzzy on the chronological specifics) abruptly stopped responding to access attempts: Unfortunately, unlike “Bunnie”, I don’t have access to nitric acid, so I get an “incomplete” on this one. I also put one of my microSD cards to the flame (using a long-reach butane lighter in my case, versus a candle), but managed to only scorch the outsides:Īdmittedly, I didn’t hold the card in the flame for as long as the YouTuber did…the experiment took place in the kitchen, and the card began emitting a strong smell, and well, my wife… Here are some briefly-back-in-retail-packaging shots of the microSD shysters and their associated SD card adapters (whose functionality I haven’t tested, come to think of it): “Later” ended up being the Christmas 2022 holidays. And I’ve subsequently learned that such trickery isn’t restricted solely to memory cards coverage from mid-last year showcased a scam involving a portable SSD supposedly 30 TBytes in size for only $39, which fooled mighty Walmart (to the subsequent dismay of the retailer’s customers).Īt the time, I’d mentioned I’d added the two fake-capacity microSD cards to my teardown pile for later revisit. At the time I had my own “fake” experience, I was already aware that shenanigans sometimes occurred in the microSD card world, spoofing not only the amount of available storage but also the manufacturer. More than two years ago, within my review of a premium portable audio player, I told the tale of acquiring two claimed 400 GByte microSD flash memory cards that ended up not being even close to what the merchant claimed from a true-capacity standpoint.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |