Summary

When acquiring a microcircuit, many considerations above and beyond the purchase price are important. Among these are quality, reliability, delivery, service, and product assurance. The lowest cost of ownership for the user is a result of the proper balance and specification of the above considerations. Reprogrammable nonvolatile memories, i.e., EEPROMs, contain the reliability considerations of endurance and data retention that can significantly affect the cost of ownership if the EEPROM is incorrectly used in the application.