Question about WiiU NAND longevity

[Videomanman87]

Quick question, how long should the NAND last? The reason I ask is I know with the Wii it is 1,000's of write cycles and Nintendo used high quality chips. But recently I saw a post here with someone say the WiiU might have problems after 600 and to move everything to a external drive to preserve NAND (Sorry I can't find the post at the moment). While I agree with that, is only 600 accurate? Did Nintendo actually use cheaper/short lived chips in the WiiU?

As a side question, I know with the Wii it will often copy a exe into flash then run it there (for example if you run a game from the SD card). Does the Wiiu do this as well? Or if games are on external HD storage with the game save, everything is kept and run on the external not using any NAND write cycles at all?

 

[V10lator]

The vWii (and I guess the Wii, too) uses SLC while the Wii itself uses MLC NAND. Guess your numbers are wrong through, from Wikipedia:

A single-level cell (SLC) flash memory may have a lifetime of about 50,000 to 100,000 program/erase cycles.

MLC flash may have a lifetime of about 1,000 to 10,000 program/erase cycles.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

The vWii (and I guess the Wii, too) uses SLC while the Wii itself uses MLC NAND. Guess your numbers are wrong through, from Wikipedia:

Doesn't the Wii U have two different NAND chips? An SLC with two pages/banks for Wii U and vWii operating systems and a bigger 8GB/32GB MLC for Wii U games.
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As a side question, I know with the Wii it will often copy a exe into flash then run it there (for example if you run a game from the SD card). Does the Wiiu do this as well? Or if games are on external HD storage with the game save, everything is kept and run on the external not using any NAND write cycles at all?

While vWii should behave like Wii and temporarily copy WiiWare/Virtual Console games from SD to NAND before starting, there is no such thing for Wii U games. They start right from USB drive when on USB drive. It would take eternity to start Breath of the Wild when it had to be copied to NAND first (if there even is enough free space).

I wouldn't worry too much about write cycles when playing Wii U titles from NAND – the only thing it will write is save data and wear leveling should make this neglectable wear.

 

[V10lator]

An SLC with two pages/banks for Wii U and vWii operating systems and a bigger 8GB/32GB MLC for Wii U games.

Never really looked into that but doesn't the Wii U use MLC and vWii SLC? ... ... Oh wait, no, you're probably right: Just remembered that Wii U crash logs are stored at SLC, for example.

 

[Videomanman87]

The vWii (and I guess the Wii, too) uses SLC while the Wii itself uses MLC NAND. Guess your numbers are wrong through, from Wikipedia:

Yes I figured it was more like 100,000 but wasn't sure of the exact type so couldn't look it up.

But WOW I never would have thought there would have been such a reduction in the WiiU vs Wii in write cycles. So while the post was off in numbers, the gist was accurate. :/

@KleinesSinchen
Yes that is what I was thinking: it didn't copy like the Wii did as it would take way too long. But with regard to wear leveling, it would help that is for certain. But it would also make a difference how full your NAND is, unless it is moving data around even when not being saved. Which last I knew they didn't. If the NAND is very full, not much wear leveling can take place as it will have to write over the same spot over and over (or close to it).

 

[V10lator]

Doesn't the Wii U have two different NAND chips? An SLC with two pages/banks for Wii U and vWii operating systems and a bigger 8GB/32GB MLC for Wii U games.

To add to my last post: IIRC The Wii U doesn't store games on MLC only but also some system data (like mlc:/usr/nsec and mlc:/sys). So a bricked MLC == a bricked Wii U. I wonder if one could still boot to and use vWii on such a MLC bricked system.

unless it is moving data around even when not being saved. Which last I knew they didn't.

I don't know about that but you're probably right: Even while the Wii U seems to be build for such advanced wear leveling algos (it could store cell usage data and stuff on SLC, for example) it probably doesn't use them cause that would have meaned higher development costs back in the days.