reFlash: What is it?

reFlash is the ability of a SPLat board to have new operating Firmware loaded into it. The operating firmware is the program that we load into the board, that gives it its SPLat "personality". This is quite different from the program you write to tailor it to your application, which we call SPLatWare.

reFlash is available in 2nd generation boards, starting with the MMi99 with firmware version 3.3 or later (reFlash was developed after the earlier MMi99 versions were released). Older designs, which do not have reFlash, are SP108, SL88, MMi88, AJ18, PMC3, CA20, OEM32 and OEM36.

There are three reasons why you would ever want to reFlash a SPLat board:

1. Because we introduce new firmware features quite frequently, it has become impossible to ensure that all our (and our dealers') inventory is fully up to date. Therefore it is possible that a board you receive does not contain the "latest and greatest". Thanks to the miracle of reFlash technology you can still update your board to the latest version.
2. We goofed, and there's a bug in the existing firmware. For example a SPLat instruction giving incorrect results.
3. We devised a new feature (for example new instructions) and you'd like to upgrade your existing board(s). This makes most sense if you keep a board for development. There is little point in upgrading boards already shipped in your product, unless you are also upgrading the SPLatWare and you have used new language features.