Durability of Nitrokey HSM (what is a write cycle)

Nitrokeys HSM
1

Hello everybody,

the website states that the Nitrokey lasts >500.000 PIN entries, while smartcard hsm’s website states 500.000 write cycles. Is every PIN entry automatically a write cycle? Can one get around this by opening a session with the HSM (would require only one PIN entry if I am not mistaken)?

The background of my request is wether an application designed around the usage of a Nitrokey should start a session at start up, or login each time something from the HSM is required.

Thanks in advance.

Jan

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