Specifications

EPC-33/34 Hardware Reference

F-2

Before the Flash medium can be accessed by TrueFFS, it needs to be formatted. The

TrueFFS format is essential for disk emulation capability. The details of this format

are completely transparent to the user. TrueFFS medium is formatted with the

TFORMAT utility (and not the DOS FORMAT command).

The formatting required by TrueFFS is a one-time operation for each Flash medium,

similar to the formatting of a floppy disk. Removable Flash media formatted by

TrueFFS on one machine can be read from and written to on any machine where

TrueFFS is installed.

TrueFFS communicates with the Flash device controller or adapter through software

drivers called Card Services and Socket Services. Card Services and Socket

Services are accepted standards of the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory-Card

International Association). PCMCIA software is not provided with the TrueFFS

package, except in special cases. This software is machine-specific, and therefore

should be provided by the computer vendor, controller/adapter vendor, or by the

TrueFFS integrator.

TrueFFS includes built-in Flash programming for almost all Flash chips that are

commercially available. Each new TrueFFS release will contain additional support

for Flash chips that are recent arrivals to the market.

The EPC-33/34 TrueFFS package contains the following device drivers:

RADSS.COM

DOS-loadable device driver specifically for RadiSys

hardware. It must load prior to TFFS.COM on

RadiSys products.

TFFS.COM

DOS-loadable device driver for Flash devices. The

functionality provided by this module is similar to the

DOS functionality of a floppy disk drive. It is suitable

for accessing removable, non-bootable Flash media.

A unique and important part of the TrueFFS medium format is the boot-image. The

boot-image is a special partition on the Flash medium that contains a fixed image.

This partition has several applications, most of which deal with the way the Flash

medium and TrueFFS react upon boot.