Wallaby Bootloader Version as clue to age?

[nerrdo]

I recently spotted a great deal on eBay. A Siemens SX-56 with the 64MB PPC Techs RAM upgrade, java ivo 1918 leather carrying case, 2 write-shield protectors, a car charger, cradle and charger, plus 2 64MB SD Cards and 1 128MB SD card.

It was listed at a modest price, so I just had to bid, thinking perhaps to sell my current SX56 should I win. Well, it turns out that I was the winning bidder for all of the above for less than $200 US.

So now that I've bragged a little, on to my question. The SX-56 I bought in January came with the bootloader version 5.22. The SX-56 I just received from that auction has version 5.15.

Which makes me wonder, is there a chronology to the bootloaders that anyone is aware of, and could this give me an idea about how much older the unit I just bought is than the unit I already had?

Not that it matters much, but I thought I'd pose the question. Any thoughts?

[Biso007]

I can't remeber the details, but if you search here you will find a topic addressing some problems with specific bootloader versions (I remember for example that 5.22 can't sense SD card with .nbf ROM file, but 5.17 can).

So, your new device might be patched by a different bootloader to over come some issues in 5.22

[itsme]

for bootloaders a higher version means a newer version.
but it is handy to keep a bootloader 5.15 on your device, since it does not come with inconvenient protection mechanisms.

my 'fixbootloader-tool' and the XdaTools both come with a 5.15 image, also the roms from the romkitchen contain a 5.15 bootloader.

neither bootloader can handle an nbf copied to a sd card.
both can only handle sd cards written in a special format ( like that generated by xdarit or XdaTools )