Counters are cheep; they /could/ count the actual requested ink coverage (in actual volume of ink product) across the lifetime of a cartridge.
That would at least give a better estimate and you'd only need to update the batch counter a couple min after a print job (just in case there's another one).
That would allow for a great reduction in programmable memory write cycles. Careful programming would also allow the use of a ring buffer that 'loops' with an erase the ROM page to vastly reduce the write count per cell.
That would at least give a better estimate and you'd only need to update the batch counter a couple min after a print job (just in case there's another one).
That would allow for a great reduction in programmable memory write cycles. Careful programming would also allow the use of a ring buffer that 'loops' with an erase the ROM page to vastly reduce the write count per cell.