Datalight today released FlashFX(R) 5.0, the newest version of its popular flash media management software that dramatically simplifies the configuration of resident flash arrays (RFAs) in Microsoft Windows CE-based devices.
"As Windows CE and resident flash devices gain in popularity for mobile and embedded devices, developers are increasingly looking for system software support to simplify development of these products," said Roy Sherrill, Datalight CEO. "FlashFX 5.0 helps these OEMs save development costs, cut their time to market, and evolve their products' capabilities and applications without expensive hardware redesigns."
Resident flash arrays appear as standard disk drive to Windows CE
FlashFX dramatically reduces the programming complexities involved in incorporating resident flash arrays by simply presenting flash memory as a disk drive to Windows CE and applications. With FlashFX 5.0, a programmer can open, read, write, and delete files in the same manner that applications interact with hard disk and floppy disk drives; FlashFX automatically manages the intricate hardware interactions. This simplifies the application development process, cuts development time, and makes more effective use of system resources. FlashFX directly supports all popular resident flash memory devices and installs into the Windows CE Platform Builder's Component Catalog for all CPUs, allowing integrators to "drag and drop" FlashFX components into their OEM adaptation.
FlashFX version 5.0 allows Windows CE designers to do two things not before possible with resident flash devices: FlashFX provides the capability to boot Windows CE from the flash device, and also to save and restore the Windows CE registry in nonvolatile flash. These two additions together greatly simplify the creation of highly reliable Windows CE devices, and are made possible by Datalight's "Seamless Flash Architecture."
FlashFX 5.0 provides "Seamless Flash Architecture" under Windows CE
With Datalight's Seamless Flash Architecture, the Windows CE operating system image, applications, application data, and registry can all be saved in flash memory as disk files, giving designers total flexibility in their use of flash space and eliminating the need to reserve space for future growth.
Flash allocation granularity has traditionally imposed restrictions on the design of Windows CE systems, with erase sectors of 128KB or larger. Typically, embedded system developers using RFAs under Windows CE needed to partition the RFA into several regions, each with a specific purpose. In defining the partitions, developers needed to strike a balance between allowing sufficient space in each region for future growth, and not consuming all available space that is otherwise needed for additional application data storage. Failure to accurately predict space allocation resulted in wasted flash memory space or the inability to add additional applications to the device, which decreased the effective life of the hardware design.
The FlashFX 5.0 software provides a Seamless Flash Architecture that allows developers to configure a flash array without estimating the rate of growth while optimizing space usage. By emulating a standard Windows CE disk drive, the software reduces flash memory allocation granularity to the standard 512-byte disk sector size. This results in significantly more disk space for storing application data while eliminating the need to determine exactly how much space must be reserved in each dedicated partition.
Patented technology
Datalight currently holds two patents for its FlashFX technology. The first was issued in June 1999 for the Variable Block Format (VBF). VBF contains media management, wear-leveling, write-interruption protection and garbage collection. The second patent was issued in August 2001 for Bad Block Management. Bad Block Management maps bad blocks dynamically and throughout the life of the product, without the use of any special hardware.
Pricing and availability
FlashFX is provided as source code in the FlashFX Porting Kit, available immediately for $2500. Delivering FlashFX in this form allows integrators complete flexibility to support any microprocessor, operating system, or flash device. A license is required to ship the product. Two licensing options are available: either a per copy royalty, or for high-volume designs, a royalty buyout is available for a specific product.
[ Home | Contact | MobiChat | Experts database | Let's do it ]
Comments to the content of this page can be posted on the MobiChat discussion group