Electrically programmed non-volatile memory chips have a finite number
of programming cycles before they start to fail. It's far easier to
replace
a battery every 5 years than to accomodate sudden and subtle failures.

john private smith wrote:

i wondered, WHY!!!!??? did
ge choose to use volitale ram for storing critical information like
config and personality info???? when they could have done like
motorola and used non voliatle ram that does not need a battery? i
donot understand this, the technology has long since been available in
1990 for battery free radio memory to exist.