Write-cycle count for Flash on cRIO and SoM Targets

[tduffy]

This may not be the right place to put this, as the Flash may not be the same on each of these units ... so my applogies if that is the case.

What is the Flash IC that is in the cRIO-9068 and the NI-9051 SoM?  What is the write cycle count for each cell on that Flash?  We are logging quite a bit of data to the device, and we're concerned about life-time numbers.

It looks like (from the SoM flyer) that the SoM uses Micron Flash.  Most of their IC's are about 100,000 PROGRAM/ERASE cycles.  Is this fair to assume?  Additionally does NI have, or can you point me to, an estimation tool for Average Bytes/Second -> life time calculations?

Thanks,

-TD

[BradM]

Fortunately for you, we had some issues during stress-testing that we wanted a good view into the state of the NAND was, so we created a debugfs view into the health of the different NAND portions.

/sys/kernel/debug/ubi/ubiN/detailed_erase_block_info gives you a bead on the health of your NAND part (note that even if there is more than one ubiN entry, it does not mean there are necessarily more than one NAND devices) by showing total erase counts along with other health data.

On Zynq targets, UBI is used as a software flash management layer to ensure that wear-leveling occurs and you don't hammer on a particular physical erase block (e.g. if you keep writing and erasing a file).

[tduffy]

Nice!

Thanks BradM, for the quick, detailed response.  And thank you to the NI team for providing this insight into the system.  Can you tell me what IC is used on the Zynq targets?  And if not, can you tell me how many PROGRAM/ERASE cycles are supported?

Thanks,

-TD

[tduffy]

Hi BradM,

Any chance you could inform me of what IC is used for the Flash?  And/or confirm that the stated IC lifecycle is 100,000 PROGRAM/ERASE cycles?  Knowing the cycle counts is great, but if I can't calculate a rough RUL, then it's not worth much to me.

Thanks,

-TD

[Nathan_R]

Hi TD,

I can confirm that the flash used in both the cRIO-9068 and the sbRIO-9651 is rated to 100,000 Program/Erase Cycles. I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Nathan

[tduffy]

It does.  Thank you.

-TD