Life time and expansion of the new FR5739 Experimenter Board

[pine 140]

So excited to have the new TI FRAM experiment board! Thank you 43oh and TI for the tips and coupon!

 

Opened the package and plugged in to the PC with the demo application today. When the GUI came up and started running, I was quite puzzled to see the "Remaining endurance" decreasing.. Checked the user guide and found that the demo program is writing to the FRAM as a demonstrator to highlight the advantages over traditional memory technology. Although there are a lot of 9s (something like 99.999999999999999765%) but still, my heart sink a little bit because it means the board is depreciating, and at a rate that looks pretty fast in front of my eyes..

 

After reading further, it turns out the maximum write endurance is 10^14. Taking the ~15k/second sample in demo 3 and 4 (3-axis accelerometer and thermister) respectively, if i keep these demo running, it will be

 

10^14 / 15000 = 6,666,666,667 seconds = 111,111,111 minutes = 1,851,852 hours = 77,160 days = 211 years

 

before the FRAM will expire. Sounds like this meant what's written on the box "Virtually unlimited write endurance". Now I feel more comfortable to let the demos run

 

On the other hand, there is a pair of connection on the board that, from the user guide, is for connection to CCxxxx daughter card (below, the black squares next to the buttons on the bottom left)

 

These look like the ones on the EvalBot. What products will fit on that? Are those for RF products only? Thanks in advance.

[bluehash 1,581]

Good calculation.

 

The connectors are most probably for the CC2500 radios. See the two tiny boards in the above link. The Stellaris evalbot has the same pinout.

[pine 140]

Good calculation.

 

The connectors are most probably for the CC2500 radios. See the two tiny boards in the above link. The Stellaris evalbot has the same pinout.

 

Thanks for the link! It looks a great kit but definitely beyond my purchasing power

[bluehash 1,581]

Cheaper alternative.