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In article <J5C97r.BBF@lugnet.com>, David <dww.robotics@gmail.com>
writes
>
> The flash used in the NXT which is internal to the AT91SAM7256 microcontroller
> can be re-programmed 10,000 times according to the spec.
This is the guaranteed minimum number, with higher voltages and at
higher temperatures than you are likely to use the NXT at.
FLASH memory is a pretty mature technology now, with 20 odd years
shipping in products. It is pretty well understood by the manufacturers
how to characterise it.
If you get less than a million write cycles I would be very surprised.
I would also guess that you are either at the Antarctic or in a tropical
rain forest.
> I'm hoping that Atmel's 10,000 number is conservative. I also hope that the NXT
> firmware doesn't reprogram the same location.
I expect the NXT does not do anything fancy. It is not worth the effort
in consumer devices, if it lasts two years of heavy use there will be no
warranty claim. There is also the issue of whether your wear-levelling
program is sufficiently reliable.
Cheers,
Tony
--
The NXT Step blog discusses the Lego Mindstorms NXT:
http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/
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> > Tony Naggs said on September 10, 2006 6:11 AM
> >
> > I expect the NXT does not do anything fancy. It is not worth the
> > effort in consumer devices, if it lasts two years of heavy use
> > there will be no warranty claim.
Don't forget that the education market is also a large portion of the
Mindstorms market. Lifetime for education is more line ten years?? And
depending on environment, these could be heavy use applications.
LEGO has also been very generous in their replacement policy. [Anyone
else got a motor of unknown vintage replace for free with no questions
asked).
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