Micro Digital Announces DiskOnChip® Single Chip Flash Disk Supported in SMX®

IP News

 
Garden Grove, California, November 29, 1999 -- Micro Digital, Inc. today announced support for M-Systems’ (Nasdaq: FLSH) DiskOnChip single-chip flash disk in its SMX Real Time Operating System (RTOS).  Micro Digital’s development of a driver supporting DiskOnChip in their smxFile and pmEasy products adds yet another important member to the growing list of disk devices supported by the SMX RTOS.

The driver was developed using M-Systems’ patented True Flash File System, TrueFFS, known for its optimal disk emulation and advanced wear-leveling technology. This driver enables smxFile or pmEasy to access DiskOnChip just like any other disk device.

smxFile is a DOS-compatible, reentrant file system for embedded systems using the SMX RTOS. Multiple tasks can access the DiskOnChip and other drives simultaneously. See the smxFile brochure for a list of devices supported and more information.

pmEasy uses the driver to load the application from DiskOnChip. Since DiskOnChip is a bootable device, pmEasy can be boot-loaded directly from it. A utility is provided with pmEasy to write a special boot sector to DiskOnChip, which the BIOS loads and runs. This starts pmEasy, which in turn loads the application. A bonus is that these systems can be updated simply by copying a new app.exe to the flash disk and rebooting. Hence, these two products offer a convenient solution for PC-compatible designs.

DiskOnChip is offered in sizes from 8 to 288MB in a standard 32-pin DIP form factor. The pinout is the same for all capacities, making DiskOnChip forward and backward compatible. There are several benefits of this design:

• Higher capacity flash disks can be offered as an option in the final product.
• The flash disk can be upgraded in the field.
• As the price decreases, larger components can be used without redesign.
• The board real estate required is tiny compared to that required by Resident Flash Arrays (RFA).
• Unlike an RFA, DiskOnChip is a single component to install or replace.
• The socket is standard and very low cost.
• The devices can be gang-programmed like EPROMs.

M-Systems offers an evaluation board that plugs into a PC ISA slot, which is extremely convenient for proof of concept and software development. This makes it easy to evaluate DiskOnChip with SMX and see how it could benefit a design.

For more information about SMX products, please visit www.smxinfo.com
For more information about DiskOnChip, please visit www.m-sys.com.