Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: CP500 "FLASH" Counter

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Posted by Tom Ostertag (Member # 8318) on 07-03-2016, 12:44 AM:

On power up of my CP500, just after the initial system loading screen, appears a box in the lower left corner with the word "FLASH" and a number underneath (598 on my unit after last power cycle). The number appears to increment by one on every power cycle, and increments further whenever changes are made to nonvolatile memory (saving alignment data, format configurations, etc.). This leads me to believe it's a write cycle counter for the long-term memory device(s).

If I'm right, should I be at all concerned about this number? Am I going to hit some threshold soon that will render my NV memory inoperable? I know flash memory has a write cycle limit, but it's usually a reasonably high number.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 07-03-2016, 10:42 AM:

Interesting feature! The flash devices I use are rated for a minimum of 5,000 write cycles per cell. If the CP500 uses something similar, you've got a ways to go. It's interesting that they apparently do a write on power up. I typically only do a read at that time.

Harold

Posted by Tom Ostertag (Member # 8318) on 07-04-2016, 07:36 PM:

That's what I was thinking with the write cycle limit as well. As for the write on power up, my best guess would be that the unit is adding a line to the diagnostic log on a successful boot.

I suppose I could answer my own question by pulling the Cat 684, finding the flash memory IC(s), and looking in the datasheet for write cycle ratings. Of course, knowing how many total writes are executed doesn't mean much without knowing how often the same cells are overwritten.

The relatively low counter number (it was around 350-400 when I bought the unit), suggests that it was probably not powered up and down every day. This leads me to another question: Is it better to leave a CP500 powered on, or powered off when not in use? I'm sure it depends on frequency of usage, but what was the norm when these were in widespread use?

EDIT: The only memory devices on the Cat 684 are a pair of Paradigm PDM41256 SRAM chips, which appear to be backed up by a 1F super capacitor. I replaced that capacitor some time ago, since the old one was leaking badly. Afterward, the FLASH counter didn't reset, and I saw no loss of my A/B chain data, or anything else. There has to be something that's hiding from me.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-05-2016, 02:15 PM:

I looked through three versions of that chips spec sheets and Paradigm doesn't actually specify the number of write cycles in their spec sheets. There has to be a brick wall one hits some where though on that...

Mark

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-05-2016, 04:14 PM:

Some controllers may have internal flash memory that is referenced with that counter, so you may not be able to find a discrete chip.

- Carsten

Posted by Fabian Schreyer (Member # 5120) on 07-28-2016, 05:16 PM:

I have watched my CP500 for some time now and the number always stays the same. It is 268.

Posted by Tom Ostertag (Member # 8318) on 09-13-2016, 10:33 PM:

Well, after updating from version 1.61 to 1.65 of the CP500 software, the flash write cycle counter no longer increments every time I reboot the unit. It only goes up when I actually make changes to my settings. That's good!

Also, what I had assumed were ROM chips on the Cat. 684 turned out to be the flash memory chips. I guess since they come pre-loaded with a version of the software, that's why they have custom labels.

Things make a bit more sense now. At least I don't have to watch that counter go up every time I turn on my system. The little things bug me. [Smile]