Talk:AT24RF08
"EEPROM suffers at least two write cycles every boot" could use a bit more explanation, as I'm wondering if this is bad for the lifetime of the EEPROM or something --Mmind 11:56, 6 March 2006 (CET)
That is what it means. Eeproms have a limited number of writes, so writing to the chip twice for every boot will reduce its lifespan.
But since I have no idea of what the number of writes is that it can sustain, I can only guess that it is sufficiently high that you should not encounter any problems related to it, for quite a number of years of normal use.
Possibly the datasheets contain some info on how many writes it can handle.
Note that this is not specific to the AT24RF08, every computer has typically several eeproms for things like BIOS and other firmware that might need to be flashed, that is effected in a similar way.
--Tonko 17:54, 6 March 2006 (CET)
The datasheet rates the AT24RF08 for a data retention time of a minimum of 10 years, and good for at least 100k write cycles per byte. So, a AT24RF08 should survive at least 50k boots, which is arguably far more than what the rest of the ThinkPad would. Heck, at ten boots per day, that's over ten years...
--hmh 2006-03-06, 14:07 UTC-0300
