The Compact-Flash Wildcard and
CF Card Software Package User Guide
<< Previous | Next>>
CF Card Software Package User Guide and Glossary
Introduction
The rest of this document describes the Compact Flash (CF) Card Software Package. This package is shipped as a kernel extension that is easily loaded onto the host controller. The software enables a product containing a host controller and a CF Wildcard to read from and write to vast amounts of flash memory on convenient removable media. The software supports the standard DOS/Windows "FAT" file system, allowing files to be created on a PC and read by the host controler, or visa versa. An automated file processing facility facilitates software upgrades or data exchanges.
Flash is a state of the art memory technology that is programmable yet nonvolatile: it maintains its contents even in the absence of power. Widely available Compact Flash Cards can be read or written from most laptop computers with a low-cost PCMCIA form-factor adapter. They adhere to the ATA standard for disk drives, a widespread software and hardware interface. "ATA" stands for "AT Attachment", an interface developed for the IBM PC AT. ATA Flash cards can be operated in a "true IDE" mode that makes them behave as a standard IDE hard drive such as those found in every PC.
The CR Card device driver software is provided as a pre-coded modular runtime library, known as a "kernel extension" because it enhances the on-board kernel's capabilities. The library functions are accessible from C and Forth.
Mosaic Industries can provide you with a web site link that will enable you to create a packaged kernel extension that has drivers for all of the hardware that you have on your system. In this way the software drivers are customized to your needs, and you can generate whatever combination of drivers you need. Make sure to specify the CF Wildcard Driver in the list of kernel extensions you want to generate, and download the resulting "packages.zip" file to your hard drive.
For convenience, a separate pre-generated kernel extension for the CF Wildcard is available from Mosaic Industries on the Demo and Drivers media (diskette or CD). Look in the Drivers directory, in the subdirectory corresponding to your hardware (your Mosaic controller), in the CF_Wildcard folder.
The kernel extension is shipped as a "zipped" file named "packages.zip". Unzipping it (using, for example, winzip or pkzip) extracts the following files:
- readme.txt - Provides summary documentation about the library.
- install.txt - The installation file, to be loaded to COLD-started Mosaic embedded controller.
- library.4th - Forth name headers and utilities; prepend to Forth programs.
- library.c - C callers for all functions in library; #include in C code.
- library.h - C prototypes for all functions; #include in extra C files.
Library.c and library.h are only needed if you are programming in C. Library.4th is only needed if you are programming in Forth. The uses of all of these files are explained below.
We recommend that you move the relevant files to the same directory that contains your application source code.
To use the kernel extension, the runtime kernel extension code contained in the install.txt file must first be loaded into the flash memory of the Mosaic controller. Start the Mosaic Terminal software with the Mosaic embedded controller connected to the serial port and turned on. If you have not yet tested your Mosaic controller and terminal software, please refer to the documentation provided with the Mosaic Terminal software. Once you can hit enter and see the 'ok' prompt returned in the terminal window, type
COLD
to ensure that the board is ready to accept the kernel extension install file. Use the "Send File" menu item of the terminal to download the install.txt to the Mosaic Controller.
Now, type
COLD
again and the kernel has been extended! Once install.txt has been loaded, it need not be reloaded each time that you revise your source code.
<< Previous | Next>>
| 
