Hi Sheldon,
Looking at the datasheet for your device it specifies a sector erase time of 3 seconds(!) and a bulk erase time of 20 seconds (!) - is that really correct?

The one I've been playing with is the SST25VF080B from Microchip, which is an 8Mbit SPI flash memory device with "only" 4k sectors. It specifies a sector erase time of 25ms and a chip erase time of 50ms (50ms vs 20s for a chip erase).

Using the SST25VF80 instead of the M25P80 should allow you to get the overall performance up due to the smaller sector size and cosiderably faster erase time - provided the 3second sector erase time is indeed correct. Then, of course, using bit banged SPI is really slow compared to using the MSSP module.

/Henrik.