System and method for tracking utilization data for an electronic device

A method of tracking utilization data for two or more removable circuit cards operating in a communication device, comprising the steps of:

• providing a non-volatile storage component on each of said cards for retaining utilization data associated with each card;
• providing a control module in communication with each circuit card;
• waiting for passage of a utilization interval at said control module;
• at said control module, triggering incrementing a utilization data value stored in the non-volatile storage component of each circuit card;
• and
• at each two or more circuit cards, storing an incremented utilization data value stored in the non-volatile storage component of each circuit card;
• and
• at each two or more circuit cards, storing an incremented utilization data value to the associated non-volatile storage component to represent passage of the utilization interval, wherein the utilization interval is a time interval and the first utilization data value is a time value indicating the cumulative time of operation of the circuit cards in the communication switch and the time interval is set to be a value between one minute and one week.

A system for tracking utilization data for two or more circuit cards operating in a communication device, comprising:

• a non-volatile storage component mounted on each circuit card of said communication switch, said non-volatile storage component providing storage of a utilization data value relating to each said circuit card, and
• a programmable device programmed to read said utilization data value from at least two of said two or more circuit cards after passage of a utilization interval,
• increment said utilization data values associated with said two or more circuit cards to represent passage of the utilization interval and write said respective utilization data values into the non-volatile data storage component of said at least two of said two or more circuit cards,
• wherein the utilization interval is a time interval, and the first utilization data value is a time value indicating the cumulative time of operation of the associated circuit card in the communication switch and the time interval is a value between one minute and one week.

A method of tracking utilization data for a removable circuit card operating in an electronic device, the circuit card having a non-volatile data storage component associated therewith for retaining the utilization data, comprising the steps of:

• providing a non-volatile data storage component on said removable circuit card;
• after passage of a utilization interval, reading a first utilization data value for the circuit card stored in the non-volatile data storage component;
• incrementing the first utilization data value to represent passage of the utilization interval;
• and
• writing the incremented utilization data value to the non-volatile data storage component, wherein the utilization interval is a time interval and the first utilization data value is a time value indicating cumulative time of operation of the circuit card in the electronic device.