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To: Binx Bolling who wrote (9876)	3/28/2000 7:34:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 60323

Binx, You are testing my recall. I think that NAND has the capability of 10,000 read-write cycles and NOR is substantially better. I could be off by one decimal point here. The instant on feature has to do with getting the code into RAM memory for computational/processing purposes. The current handheld devices do this with a separate, compartmentalized RAM memory chip and a back-up battery for refresh. We had a discussion here a while ago about this with Steve Walstra, if I recall correctly. Perhaps it was Gary Spiers. This is a significant limitation for flash. In any case, some useful bridges are constructed with flash. Psion is using flash to store its current OS. This is then written to RAM at boot-up. At a later date the flash module can be upgraded without having to replace a memory chip physically. Either way the flash serves primarily as a reservoir which limits its susceptibility to fatigue and data loss. SSTI and others (ATMEL, LSI and Micron come to mind) are combining flash and DRAM functionality on a single chip which is great if you can mask for both without making the process too complicated. This seems to be a fairly decent middle ground. Once MRAM is available it could make non-flash memory go away. I think flash will still be a tough competitor for storage purposes. This is my limited knowledge of this subject. Perhaps someone else with an EE degree could comment. Aus