At the current state of affairs in the re-programmable microcontroller industry the data sheet recommended number of cycles of re-programming is a guide by the manufacturer of the number of cycles permitted. Of course this is a statistical projection and it is still possible for some parts to expire and become dead before the rated number.

I just hope we don't get to the point that the manufacturers install non-volatile counters in the parts and lock out re-programming after the maximum cycle count has been exceeded.

I seem to recall some of the earliest GAL programmable logic devices had onboard erasure cycle counters that made it easy to track when a device may be reaching its re-programmability limit. Of course back when I saw this I believe that these GAL devices were spec'ed out at 100 cycles.

Michael Karas