Model FMAP0.5: 524K BYTE FLASH CARD From OPTROL INC.,PO BOX 37157 RALEIGH, NC 27627 Software by SDRFT, 1117 BRAEMAR CT. CARY, NC 27511 LICENSE -------- All software supplied is Copyrighted to SDRFT. The user is allowed to make one copy for backup purposes only. The software may not be distributed by any means without the express permission of either SDRFT or OPTROL. No warranty either expressed or implied is given for the use of the software for any given application. SDRFT and OPTROL will not be liable for any damages which occur from the use of the Flash Card or the Software. INTRODUCTION ------------- The FMAP0.5 fits in the memory card slot like 128K RAM card and has eight times the file storage capacity. The memory is organized in 8 64K blocks. It offers over 10 year data retention without any batteries or any other power source. Data bits are retained as static charges on electrodes encased in nearly perfect insulator. This is essentially the same mechanism as that used in EPROM. Unlike EPROM, flash memory can be erased (flashed) and rewritten electrically while still plugged into the Portfolio. The flash memory card data is also safe from magnetic fields that can corrupt data in ordinary magnetic storage media. The cards add only about 3% to the load on the Portfolio's batteries when it is turned on and no load when the Portfolio is turned off. The card can safely be left inserted continuously. Insert the card inside the memory card slot, turn on the Portfolio and reboot it. The first block on the card designated A: or the boot block boots the Portfolio and loads driver software from the card to make the other 7 blocks of card memory capacity act like disk drive D:. You can write to and read from D: like you would RAM card while the boot block (A:) is protected and can only be accessed with a special utility provided. As modified files are written back to the flash memory, they cannot simply overwrite their old sector locations because the old sectors have not yet been erased. The modified file is written into fresh sectors and the sectors previously occupied are marked "used." When the supply of fresh sectors gets low, the user can activate the Flash Clean(TM) part of the driver software which erases the "used" sectors and makes them fresh again. Flash Clean for the FMAP0.5 saves the active file sectors to an on-card RAM, flash erases the entire memory a chip at a time, and replaces the active sectors in their proper locations among the newly erased sectors in the chip. The result is fresh memory containing only valid file sectors on newly erased sectors fresh for reuse. Mass file transfer between the Portfolio and a desktop PC is very convenient using the memory card and Atari's PC Card Drive. There is also a TEMPORARY 128K RAMDISK designated drive E: on the card. It can be activated by editing the CONFIG.SYS file and used for file storage as long as power is applied to the card. It can be very useful if you want to repeatedly modify a large file such as your address book and do not have enough C: capacity to hold it all. You can do repeated saves to E: as you work and one final save to D: at the end before you or the Port shuts off the power. This will avoid a rapid accumulation of used D: sectors which can arise from repeated saves of a large file. Just remember that you must save any E: data to C: or D: before Port power shuts off or you withdraw the card. There is no battery in the card to keep the ramdisk alive. Remember that if the Port is left unattended for about 3 minutes it shuts off the power to everything but C: to save batteries and anything in E: ramdisk will be lost. The STAYON.COM utility from B. J. Gleason can be used to keep the Port from shutting down automatically. STAYON keeps the Port in the high power run mode and prevents it from dropping back to the half power standby mode while waiting for a key press or from turning off automatically after 3 minutes of inactivity. The Port will turn off manually only. To cancel STAYON the Port must be rebooted to remove it from system RAM. The MAKEBT05,CLEAN05,and FMT05 utilities use the RAM of this E: space and will over write any files still there when the utilities are started. WARNING ------- When formatting or cleaning be certain that the following are done: - have a fresh set of batteries in the Port, or be using an AC adapter - do not turn off the Port while the formatting or cleaning programs are running, this could result in data lose or data corruption - as a rule you should not turn off the Port when you are saving files. Wait until the save is completed. STARTUP ------- Plug in the card with the power off and reboot the computer with . The card has a startup program which will copy over any files needed and will modify or create a CONFIG.SYS file on the C: drive. The program will then reboot the Port and the card can be accessed. The reboot process is very important, the driver loads in information from the card when the Port is rebooted. When you insert the card it is a good idea to reboot the Port so that the driver can load the information it needs to work. If you work with multiple flash cards this is even more important. The driver loading and file checking takes about 3 seconds to complete. The CONFIG.SYS may be changed but it should have these 3 lines at the start: BUFFERS=2 FILES=20 DEVICE=A:\FMAP05.DRV The BUFFERS=2 is very important. With more than this the PORT will sometimes have problems when doing multiple file copies or deletions. This seems to be a problem with Port DOS V1.072. Later versions may not have this problem. Also when using fewer BUFFERS there is more RAM available for programs. The driver takes up less than 3k when loaded. The C: drive should be set as small as possible, 16K seems to work the best. If you wish to activate the 128K E: drive you must add the line DEVICE=A:\RAMDRV.SYS to the CONFIG.SYS file. UTILITIES --------- Included on the card are some programs which will make the use of the card easier on the both the Port and the PC Card Drive. FMT05 ----- This program will format the D: section of the card and erase all data on D:. Once the program is completed the Port will be rebooted to update the driver with new D: drive status information. CLEAN05 ------- This is the Flash Clean(TM) program that will recover all the used areas on the D: area of the card. Simply type CLEAN05 and valid files will be saved, each of the flash chips will be erased, and the files will be replaced in their proper locations leaving D: with valid files and fresh sectors ready for reuse. When completed the Port will be rebooted. See WARNING section above. FDINFO05 -------- Type FDINFO05 to get information about the state of the card. It will display the size of the card, the information about file storage, used space, and free area. The file storage is the amount used by DOS for overhead and actual file storage. The used space is the amount of storage which the driver has used to move data around on the card. This is typically files that have been changed or rewritten. The free space is the most important part of this information. This will give you the actual amount of free space remaining on the card. The DOS program CHKDSK will not provide accurate information about the status of the card, it will normally report that the card has more free storage area than the it really has. Also as files are deleted from the card that area can not be used until the card has been cleaned. This may cause the totals reported from FDINFO05 to not add up to the total of the card. MAKEBT05 -------- This is used to create a new BOOT A: drive on the card. It will copy the contents directly of the C: drive to the A: drive. You should FDISK 66 first, delete any files in the SYSTEM directory, and the SYSTEM directory. You then copy all the files from the A: drive to the C: drive. At this point if desired the user can delete any of the documentation part of the A: files which are already in backup elsewhere or in hard copy and can add any files wanted to be part of the A: drive. Once the Port's C: drive looks just like the A: drive is to be, MAKEBT05 can be run. The user should leave all the utility programs on the A: drive, as they will be needed for the use of the card. For safety's sake be certain to make a BACKUP copy of all the files supplied on the A: drive. If more space must be found on the A: drive then the boot files can be reduced to the minimum set which is: FMAP05.DRV, RAMDRV.SYS, CONFIG.SYS, PCFM05DR.SYS, CKCONF05.EXE, MAKEBT05.EXE, and AUTOEXEC.BAT. This will leave 47K free on the A: drive for user files. The remainder of the utilities can be put in D: but they must be saved somewhere else before doing FMT05. CKCONF05 -------- This program is used to check to see if the C: drive has a CONFIG.SYS file. If not it will make a CONFIG.SYS file. If a CONFIG.SYS file exists it will add the information needed for the driver. FMAP05.DRV ------------ This is the driver that interfaces the Flash Card with the PORT. It is a device driver and will let the card be accessed as drive D:, this is why it must be the first driver loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file. If any errors are found with the card they will be reported by the driver. PC CARD DRIVE ------------- The FLASH CARD will work in the PC CARD DRIVE in order to enhance its value to the user. The PC Card Drive will enable the user to easily transfer files between a desk top PC and the PORT. Two software drivers must be loaded, the first is CD.SYS which comes with the PC Card Drive and is already in the root directory of the PC boot disc if the PC Card Drive has been installed. The second is the PCFM05DR.SYS on the A: drive part of the card. The boot (A:) part of the card can read by CD.SYS but not written to. The main part (D:) of the FMAP0.5 can be both written and read to by using the PCFM05DR.SYS device driver. PCFM05DR.SYS ------------ This driver is similar to the FMAP05.DRV driver used on the Port, but it works on a PC using the PC Card Drive. To install it copy the file PCFM05DR.SYS to the root directory of the boot disc of the PC, and edit the PC's CONFIG.SYS file to add the line DEVICE=PCFM05DR.SYS right after the line DEVICE=CD.SYS In order to properly use the FMAP0.5 the memory card should be plugged in first and the PC should be rebooted. If the machine is not rebooted the driver may not function properly. PCINFO05 -------- This will report status information about the card using the PC Card Drive. See FDINFO05 for details. NOTE: DOS based utility programs may report lost clusters, and ask you to recover these. DO NOT DO IT. This may cause data to be lost. Also do not try to DEFRAGMENT the card, this will cause the data to be lost, and since the card has no mechanical parts, it will not improve the speed of the card. No other utility programs are included for using the Flash Card with the PC Card Drive. PC Card Drive Addresses ----------------------- The default addresses are assumed for the card. If other addresses are being used, contact SDRFT or the technical support BBS for information on use with other addresses. AUTOEXEC.BAT & CONFIG.SYS ------------------------- These are the minimal files needed for use with the FMAP0.5. ERRORS ------ There are several errors which may be reported by the drivers: SECTOR COLLISION (write mode) The Port has tried to write to a protected sector. This should not be seen under normal use. CHAIN ERROR (read/write mode) The driver has found a sector chain which has been corrupted. The CLEAN05 program should be run as soon as possible. The CLEAN05 program will use the last valid part of the chain. This error may result in the loss of data. DISK GETTING FULL (read/write mode) When the disk has less than 64k this will appear, you may still use the card, but the message will appear whenever you save data to the card. The card should be cleaned as soon as possible. DISK FULL (read/write mode) The disk is full and no more data may be written to it. You will need to abort what you are doing and clean the card. If you are in the middle of a program and this happens, you may need to reboot the Port and data may be lost. FLASH CARD GUIDELINES --------------------- As a general rule it is recommended that the card be only kept 3/4's full. This will allow enough room for changes to files, without forcing the user to clean the card all the time. As with good computer practice, you should BACKUP your data on a regular basis. This is made easy with use of the PC Card Drive. The Port utilities will not work properly on a desk top PC, and the PC Card Drive Utilities will not work properly on a Port. TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- Support may be obtained by calling the Technical Support BBS at 919-481-3170 or on Compuserve by Email to 73677,601. Or write: Software Done Right the First Time (SDRFT) 1117 Braemar Ct. Cary, NC 27511 RUN PROGRAMS ------------ RUN programs are limited to 64k with the FMAP0.5. If you need to have programs RUN off the card, contact technical support about your needs. PC is an IBM trademark, Portfolio is an Atari trademark, Flash Clean and FMAP0.5 are Optrol trademarks.