Hi everybody, I have an application that i need to memorize data (user setting) each time they are changed. I'm using lpc2103. So i have 2 solution: 1. reserve a sector of internal flash for data storing. Each time user's setting changed (quite frequently), the data will be written to internal flash by IAP 2. use an external EEPROM.
I just wonder if internal Flash is made for this?, i means can it live long with too much erase/write operation. thanks you
Given properly implemented wear leveling, it's not uncommon to achieve endurance of millions of update cycles with on-chip flash memory. You'd have to do a detailed calculation, though. There is a problem with the LPC2103, however: the smallest write to on-chip flash is 256 bytes. This greatly limits the usefulness of internal flash for storage frequently changing data.
You should not ask a forum what number of write/erase cycles the flash supports. That information should be taken from the official datasheets. Why trust people you don't know, instead of going for the official manufacturer-supplied information?
"I have an application that i need to memorize data (user setting) each time they are changed"
But, surely, user settings are not going to be "fast changing" at all - are they??!
That would depend on type of device. Some devices don't just store configuration, but also user state. So everytime you play music, the program remembers where in the music list you ended, automatically continuing from same position in same song. And with same volume as previous time.
For such state changes, you can quickly wear out the internal flash sectors of a processor. Even more so if a program stores snapsoht state regularly to have as backup in case the device took an unexpected reboot or the user disconnected power.