1. A method, comprising: predicting a first leakage curve for a first state in a charge-based memory, based on a predicted application-specific usage profile for the memory; predicting a second leakage curve for a second state in the charge-based memory, based on the predicted application-specific usage profile for the memory; determining a first reference value that will maximize a predicted operational life of the memory, based on at least one of the first and second predicted leakage curves; and programming a first reference circuit with the first reference value.