
E
1.0
iMC002/004/010/020FLSA
5
PRELIMINARY
APPLICATIONS
Intel’s second generation Series 2 Flash Memory
Cards facilitate high performance disk emulation
for the storage of data files and application
programs on a purely solid-state removable
medium.
File
management
Translation Layer (FTL), in conjunction with the
Series 2 Flash Memory Cards, enable the design
of
high-performance
palmtop, and pen-based PCs that have the
processing power of today’s desktop computers.
software,
Flash
light-weight
notebook,
Application software stored on the flash memory
card substantially reduces the slow disk-to-DRAM
download process. Replacing the mechanical disk
results in a dramatic enhancement of read
performance and substantial reduction of power
consumption, size and weight—considerations
particularly important in portable PCs and
equipment. The Series 2 Card’s high performance
read access time allows the use of Series 2 Cards
in an “eXecute-in-place” (XIP) architecture. XIP
eliminates
redundancy
DRAM/Disk
memory
Operating systems stored in flash memory
decreases system boot or program load times,
enabling the design of PCs that boot, operate,
store data files and execute application programs
from/to nonvolatile memory without losing the
ability to perform an update.
associated
system
with
architectures.
File management systems modify and store data
files by allocating flash memory space intelligently.
Wear leveling algorithms, employed to equally
distribute the number of rewrite cycles, ensure that
no particular block is cycled excessively relative to
other blocks. This provides hundreds of thousands
of hours of power on usage.
This file management software enables the user to
interact with the flash memory card in precisely the
same way as a magnetic disk.
Series 2 Flash Memory Cards provide durable
nonvolatile memory storage for mobile PCs on the
road, facilitating simple transfer back into the
desktop environment.
For systems currently using a static RAM/battery
configuration for data acquisition, the Series 2
Flash Memory Card’s nonvolatility eliminates the
need for battery backup. The concern for battery
failure no longer exists, an important consideration
for portable computers and medical instruments,
both requiring continuous operation. Series 2
Cards consume no power when the system is off,
and only 60 μA in deep-sleep mode (2 Megabyte
card). Furthermore, flash memory cards offer a
considerable cost and density advantage over
memory cards based on static RAM with battery
backup.
Besides disk emulation, the Series 2 Card’s
electrical block-erasure, data writability, and
inherent
nonvolatility
accumulation and recording needs. Electrical
block-erasure
provides
selectively rewrite blocks of data, while saving
other blocks for infrequently updated parameters
and lookup tables. For example, networks and
systems that utilize large banks of battery-backed
DRAM to store configuration and status benefit
from the Series 2 Flash Card’s nonvolatility and
reliability.
fit
well
with
data
design
flexibility
to