FORTASA BLOG

CompactFlash cards have been the dominant choice for embedded storage in Industrial Electronic Systems. Attracted by the universal standard in both interface and form factor, the CompactFlash cards have migrated from the storage media predominantly used in consumer devices such as Digital Cameras and MP3 players to Industrial Applications and non-consumer platforms.

Industrial CompactFlash card

In embedded applications, CompactFlash cards are generally used as a higher reliability and more robust storage system to replace traditional Hard Disk Drives. The CompactFlash card includes a TrueIDE interface to emulate the bus interface of the ATA/IDE bus and make Flash storage transparent to the host system.

CompactFlash card standard has been evolving to incorporate higher performance specifications and higher capacity storage. The latest CFA revision already includes support for UDMA-7. In an effort to achieve blazing fast data transfers, the CompactFlash manufacturers embraced the new interface standard  However, in the embedded world, the newly developed fast data transfer capability did not benefit the end platforms, as the legacy ATA/IDE chipsets had not incorporated the advanced interfaces.

Even more frustrating was the fact that newer, UDMA-enabled, CompactFlash cards exhibited compatibility issues with the legacy embedded systems.Oftentimes, we receive a distressed call from a customer who is having a device recognition problem interfacing a newer CompactFlash card. The easiest remedy is to disable the UDMA mode by the CompactFlash card firmware. Typically this change will not have any adverse performance degradation as the legacy embedded systems typically do not support the higher throughput modes.

CompactFlash manufacturers, like Fortasa Memory Systems, Inc. can modify the Flash controller Firmware to disable the UDMA or any other mode that causes system incompatibility issue.

Please contact Fortasa for any information about our Industrial CompactFlash card products.