MLC vs TLC in write-once applications

If I'm using an SSD as more or less a read-only device, is there any benefit to MLC over TLC (and up)? Does endurance only matter for total number of writes, or do uptime and/or reads affect the time before data loss can begin to occur?

 

To answer your question, MLC does have an advantage over TLC in read-only application. MLC is is more resistant to data loss.

However, with that said, a magnetic hard drive would be superior to an SSD in data retention in an infrequently-accessed storage device.

 

For this application, the drive is going to be used regularly and in a random-access pattern (many simultaneous ~4MB reads), so SSDs are pretty much perfect for the task. Also, data loss would be more of a nuisance than a problem, since I can always just keep a backup on a mechanical. Plus any data integrity issues would likely be immediately noticeable.

For this data loss, it would mostly be just corruption of written information, right? Or would the cells actually become unusable?

 

TLC will lose data faster than 2 bit MLC. The cells are not broken in a high P/E sense and are still reusable, but charge will leak to a level at which recovery of old data is difficult.

However the controller may automatically recharge blocks with old data as long as it is powered.

 

Hmm... shouldn't be too big an issue then using TLC for this. Thanks!