I'm interested in setting up a Linux box with Flash memory instead of a hard drive. Before that's possible, I need to find Flash memory that can be used as a hard drive. Anyone know where I can find such memory? I'm completely in the dark on this, but I think it would make a very interesting project.

You'll find lots of usb flash, not sure if you can find ide ones.

The only one that I know of are solid state scsi drives is this : http://www.sparcproductdirectory.com/curtisart.html what you are talking about?

-Joey

I've seen CompactFlash to IDE ribbon cable converters on eBay. You can't hot-plug/unplug them though... requires a reboot.

There's an auction ending in 5 minutes, but seller has another of same: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2794775676

Build or purchase?

Take a look:
http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-buyers-guide.html

This looks like exactly what I need:

http://www.m-sys.com/Content/Product...uct.asp?PID=23

32 MB IDE (ATA-4) HDD. Mean time between failures is above 7 million hours. Their distributor isn't in or else I'd be able to get a price quote...

[edit] http://www.emjembedded.com/cgi-bin/a...e.cgi?spec+MSY quotes the price as $44 for a single unit. [/edit]

That's way too expensive IMHO. I picked up a new 15X 128 meg Viking CF card on eBay for $21, which is about the same speed as the drive you're considering. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3803872233 Add the IDE adaptor I linked above and you'd get quadruple the storage for the same amount of money. RiData makes 40X-52X flash cards now too BTW. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3804365362 I'd like to hook four of those up to a Promise FastTrak in a RAID-0 config.

I'm personally going to be buying a SATA HDD soon myself. That's because they're faster and cheaper than IDE drives. I suppose that it's an interesting idea, but I myself would rather just have HDDs built to be HDDs.

I was wanting to put a PC in my car; a regular HDD wouldn't survive the first speed bump.

My HDD went through tons of bumps in a car while in my comp, safe or not. lol It actually seems like a good idea to make a HDD like that one you describe, so perhaps you could submit that to some place like WD and have others sign a petition, because once the demand starts in this economy, the supply does.

Hmm... sounds like a better solution. Okay, so apparently this is what I will need:

1 x Mini-ITX case
1 x 55W power supply
1 x VIA EPIA motherboard (integrated 500 MHz processor)
1 x PC2100 RAM stick
1 x CompactFlash card
1 x CF to IDE adapter
1 x PCI Ethernet controller (eth1)

I'm assuming that Mini-ITX will require me to purchase a mini ethernet controller (the kind that fit in a Micro-ATX case). But I'll do more research on that.

Good, this could work out great.

The HDD manufacturers post specs on that kind of stuff. Non-operating (heads parked) shock they can take well; it's the operating shock you have to worry about. If heads skip across spinning platters, the drive is toast. I've used a laptop in car (with a GPS receiver) a few times myself and it survived, but that's probably because of the cushy seat. Mounted to the body of the vehicle it'll take a beating for sure. Anyway, its been done already; there's a mini-ITX site somewhere where I saw one this guy built. I forget the link ATM, but maybe with some googling... or just stop by the VIA Arena forums; I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.

I'm not alone....Read my previous post.