We always knew that the implementation of these devices incorporated a uC, simply because the way you interact with them (SPI or SDIO interface) involves a state machine that would take up lots of space or upgrade headaches to do in pure hardwired logic.
What a lot of us thought, however, is that the uC would be in the form of what's found in other single purpose devices with similar interfaces (e.g. temp/humidity sensors) : code exists in some ROM table whose mask is set in production.
Secondly, flash is a highly competitive product with narrow margins. Check out some other posts on his blog to get an idea, esp. the ones about the ghost runs.
It's only after you read up on the complexities of bad cell management in flash that you get a sense of this problem. And that it involves complex on-device logic. In the end, the devices (uC) become so high-spec that the firmware update feature is a no-brainer. Compare it to cell phones that increase in complexity until one day they're capable of running Linux, at which point a floodgate of possibilities opens up.
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We always knew that the implementation of these devices incorporated a uC, simply because the way you interact with them (SPI or SDIO interface) involves a state machine that would take up lots of space or upgrade headaches to do in pure hardwired logic.
What a lot of us thought, however, is that the uC would be in the form of what's found in other single purpose devices with similar interfaces (e.g. temp/humidity sensors) : code exists in some ROM table whose mask is set in production.
Secondly, flash is a highly competitive product with narrow margins. Check out some other posts on his blog to get an idea, esp. the ones about the ghost runs.
It's only after you read up on the complexities of bad cell management in flash that you get a sense of this problem. And that it involves complex on-device logic. In the end, the devices (uC) become so high-spec that the firmware update feature is a no-brainer. Compare it to cell phones that increase in complexity until one day they're capable of running Linux, at which point a floodgate of possibilities opens up.