Date   : Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:28:44 +0100
From   : "David Harper" <dl.harper@...>
Subject: Re:

Jules Richardson wrote:

>> The "E" in EPROM stands for "Erasable". The idea of them is that if you 
>> want
>> to re-program one you first erase it, then you program it with the new 
>> data.

> Not sure how many erase/write cycles each chip will take - circa 1000 
> sticks in my brain for some reason, but I don't know if this drastically 
> reduces with age (the average 2732 must be 20 years old now, for a chip 
> that probably had an expected lifetime of 15 years or so from new)

I think you are remembering the EEPROMs in the Compact. They definitely have 
a limited number of writes, and since you can alter a single byte within 
them it would be possible to get to this figure. I cannot imagine anyone 
wanting to wipe and reprogram a standard EPROM 1000 times. You can damage 
them by too great a UV exposure, though.

David Harper