I think flash is better managed that it previously was. Take a peek at the mtbf mentioned on this compact flash:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0411/04111 ... dcards.asp
CF和PC cards offer extended temperature ranges, extreme endurance, an MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 3 million hours, extended shock and vibration resistance, complete serialization and traceability, and a seven-year warranty. The standard grade cards offer a competitively priced product with high endurance and 1 million hours of MTBF.
So - 3 million hours for their better ones, and 1 million hours for the standard ones. Let's see ... how does that translate into numbers we can understand?
1,000,000 hours is 41,667 days which is 114 years!
3,000,000 hours is 125,000 days which is 342 years!
How is this possible? Manage the physical flash medium by wear leveling and dumping bad blocks. It might shrink a little but not much if managed correctly. My dad invented the first removable flash disk and then an OS to sit on top of it, pretty cool stuff. Its used in almost everything now in some form or another. What a 'flashback' that is.
