Instruction Manual

503 Series Industrial Grade CompactFlash Card Product Manual v2.1Cactus Technologies
®
2
Supported Standards
1.1.
Cactus Technologies CompactFlash Memory Cards are fully electrically compatible with the following
specications:
• PCMCIA PC Card Standard v2.1
• PCMCIA PC Card ATA Specication
• CompactFlash Specication 4.1 & 5.0
• ATA Specication published by ANSI: X3.221 AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives
Product Features
1.2.
Cactus Technologies Industrial Compact Flash Cards contain a high level, intelligent controller. This
intelligent controller provides many capabilities not found in other types of memory cards. These
capabilities include the following:
• Standard ATA register and command set (same as found on most magnetic disk drives).
• Manages details of erasing and programming ash memory independent of the host system
• Sophisticated defect managing capabilities (similar to magnetic disk drives).
• Sophisticated system for error recovery using powerful error correction code (ECC).
• Intelligent power management for low power operation.
1.2.1. Host and Technology Independence
Cactus Technologies Industrial CF Cards appears as a standard ATA disk drive to the host system.
The card utilizes a 512-byte sector which is the same as that in an IDE magnetic disk drive. To
write or read a sector (or multiple sectors), the host computer software simply issues an ATA
Read or Write command to the card as per the ATA protocol. The host software then waits for
the command to complete. The host system does not get involved in the details of how the ash
memory is erased, programmed or read as this is all managed by the built-in controller in the card.
Also, with the intelligent on-board controller, the host system software will not require changing
as new ash memory evolves. Thus, systems that support the Cactus Technologies Industrial CF
products today will continue to work with future Cactus Technologies Industrial CF cards built with
new ash technology without having to update or change host software.
1.2.2. Defect and Error Management
Cactus Technologies Industrial CF cards contain a sophisticated defect and error management
system similar to those found in magnetic disk drives. The defect management is completely
transparent to the host and does not consume any user data space.
The soft error rate for Cactus Technologies Industrial CF cards is much lower than that of
magnetic disk drives. In the extremely rare case where a read error does occur, the card has
sophisticated ECC to recover the data.
These defect and error management systems, coupled with the solid-state construction, give
Cactus Technologies Industrial CF cards unparalleled reliability.