Datalight Ships Faster, Smaller CardTrick 3 Flash File System to Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Other OEMs.ARLINGTON, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 1996--Datalight began shipping version 3 of its CardTrick flash file system software for embedded PC systems. The CardTrick software makes flash memory look like a disk to embedded systems. CardTrick 3 introduces a new, patent pending technology called VBF VBF Veterinary Benevolent Fund (UK;established 1897) VBF Vital Business Function (ITIL Availability Management Term) VBF Bombing Fighting Squadron for Variable Block Flash File System. This method can read and write flash memory more efficiently than prior file systems. Several other improvements have been made with this release of CardTrick 3 System RAM consumption has decreased significantly. Typical usage is under 19K versus prior usage of about 28K. CardTrick can now be run out of ROM, reducing RAM usage to as little as 6K and ROM usage to under 12K. Full write interruption recovery protects your system from data loss or corruption. Datalight's new version no longer utilizes technologies specified under the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association's (PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, San Jose, CA, www.pcmcia.org) An international standards body and trade association that was founded in 1989 to establish a standard for connecting peripherals to portable computers. PCMCIA created the PC Card. See PC Card. ) Flash Translation Layer (FTL (Flash Translation Layer) See flash memory. ). CardTrick versions 2 and 2.5X utilized a file system based on the FTL standard published by PCMCIA. A number of companies have asserted patent rights in FTL and ownership is in dispute. Datalight's VBF technology does not use FTL and is not subject to these disputes. Moreover, Datalight's patent pending VBF file system is superior to FTL in many cases. Datalight is shipping its cutting edge technology with CardTrick 3 and discontinued distribution of the FTL technology under dispute. Use of the Datalight FTL flash file system with PCMCIA cards is not under dispute and can continue indefinitely. Those customers that are using the old FTL technology on flash other than PCMCIA cards have been upgraded to CardTrick version 3. "CardTrick's Variable Block Flash technology is the most significant advance I've seen in flash file systems in several years," said Roy Sherrill, president and founder of Datalight. "VBF is not limited to writing small, fixed length blocks and gains performance advantages directly from the system's microprocessor." Micro Computer Specialist's Incorporated (MCSI MCSI Multiple Capture Single Image MCSI Mining Consulting Services, Inc. mcSi Microcrystalline Silicon MCSI Motorola Cellular Services, Inc. MCSI Multi-Channel Communications Sciences Inc. MCSI Multi-Media Chunk Stream Identifier ) in Vista, Calif., a 20-year version of disk emulators and embedded computer systems, configured the software to its PROMDISK V series disk emulators (1 MB - 32 MB). "CardTrick 3 will allow us to offer superior performance at a lower cost," commented Al Puglisi, president of MCSI. Todd Lowell, sales manger, added, "CardTrick 3 will help increase sales of the passive backplane CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. products that include disk emulation capabilities." Phoenix Technologies' PICO Pico (pē`kō) [Port.,=peak], island (1991 pop. 15,129), 167 sq mi (433 sq km), Horta dist., in the N Atlantic, one of the central Azores. It takes its name from the volcanic mountain, Pico Alto [high peak], which rises to 7,711 ft (2,350 m). Group of Santa Clara, Calif., includes the CardTrick 3 algorithms in its new PICO Flash Array product. "The CardTrick 3 technology provided our PICO Flash Array product with an efficient and high performance FLASH algorithm," remarked Peter Baldwin, PICO Product Director. "We have already begun shipping PICO Flash Array with the CardTrick 3 technology to many OEM customers world-wide." Datalight products have been used in embedded systems since the company was founded in 1983 and began providing flash file systems to the embedded PC market in 1990. CardTrick was introduced in 1993 as a full separate installable file system A file system that can be added to an operating system that is designed to handle multiple file systems. Multiple file systems allow different types of file structures to be accessed. See IFSMgr. . Throughout the years, Datalight has kept up with rapid changes in flash technology. Other Datalight products for embedded systems include Datalight ROM-DOS operating system, a highly compact MS-DOS MS-DOS in full Microsoft Disk Operating System Operating system for personal computers. MS-DOS was based on DOS, developed in 1980 by Seattle Computer Products. Microsoft Corp. bought the rights to DOS in 1981, and released MS-DOS with IBM's PC that year. compatible operating system with special features for embedded systems. WinLight, a small, embedded operating system An operating system used in special-purpose applications (embedded systems). Embedded operating systems are typically very compact and often designed for real time operations. See embedded Linux, QNX, OS-9, Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE, VxWorks and Symbian OS. , supporting a subset of the Windows 3.1 API, adds a graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to (GUI), protected mode access and multi-tasking to embedded and hand-held systems while utilizing only 256K of RAM and ROM. CONTACT: Datalight Tim Gillman, 360/435-8086 ext. 115 |
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