small sizes, where the cell cost isn't too important, and flash for larger sizes. A programmed EPROM retains its data for a minimum of ten to twenty years, with many still retaining data after 35 or more years, and can be read an unlimited number of times without affecting the lifetime. The erasing window must be kept covered with an opaque label to prevent accidental erasure by the UV found in sunlight or camera flashes. Old PC BIOS chips were often EPROMs, and the erasing window was often covered with an adhesive label containing the BIOS publisher's name, the BIOS revision, and a copyright notice. Often this label was foil-backed to ensure its opacity to UV. Erasure of the EPROM begins to occur with wavelengths shorter than 400 nm. Exposure time for sunlight of one week or three years for room fluorescent lighting may cause erasure. The recommended erasure procedure is exposure to UV light at 253.7 nm of at least 15 Ws/cm2, usually achieved in 20 to 30 minutes with the lamp at a distance of about 2.5 cm. Erasure can also be accomplished with X-rays: EPROMs have a limited but large number of erase cycles; the silicon dioxide around the gates accumulates damage from each cycle, making the chip unreliable after several thousand cycles. EPROM programming is slow compared to other forms of memory. Because higher-density parts have little exposed oxide between the layers of interconnects and gate, ultraviolet erasing becomes less practical for very large memories. Even dust inside the package can prevent some cells from being erased. Application For large volumes of parts (thousands of pieces or more), mask-programmed ROMs are the lowest cost devices to produce. However, these require many weeks lead time to make, since the artwork for an IC mask layer must be altered to store data on the ROMs. Initially, it was thought that the EPROM would be too expensive for mass production use and that it would be confined to development only. It was soon found that small-volume production was economical with EPROM parts, particularly when the advantage of rapid upgrades of firmware was considered. Some microcontrollers, from before the era of EEPROMs and flash memory, use an on-chip EPROM to store their program. Such microcontrollers include some versions of the Intel 8048, the Freescale 68HC11, and the "C" versions of the PIC microcontroller. Like EPROM chips, such microcontrollers came in