Does anyone know if there are other reasons for the small root partition apart from flash memory speed? Am I even right about the fast flash reason (can someone verify)?

Assuming that the 256MB partition really is in fast flash, it seems reasonable that the 768MB swap partition also is in fast flash. Out of curiosity: Does anyone know if there is an underlying 1GB fast flash partitioned into the root and swap partitions? If so, there might be other partitioning possibilities...