CF Module Software Package

The CF (Compact Flash) Card software enables a product containing a host
controller, a Wildcard Carrier Board and a CF Module 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 QED Board, 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.  

The CF Software Package comprises four layers.  The first two are
essentially invisible to the end user, and the latter two provide high
level capabilities:

1. The ATA/IDE software driver layer enables drive identification and
read/write operations using standard ATA commands.  

2. The FAT layer implements a DOS-compatible FAT (File Allocation
Table) file interface to track the placement of files on a
pre-formatted ATA flash card in a PC-compatible format.  Both FAT-12
and the newer FAT-16 formats are supported, and the FAT format is
supported by all Microsoft operating systems including Windows NT,
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  The key restrictions are that files must
be in the root directory, and filenames are limited to the "8+3"
scheme: up to 8 characters in the filename, and up to 3 characters in
the file extension.

3. The file management layer includes a set of user-callable commands
modeled on the ANSI C file manipulation functions that enable the
programmer to create, open, close, read, write, rename, copy and delete
files in the root directory.  Other software features include directory
listing commands that behave like the DOS DIR command, a File_Type
command that prints the contents of a specified file to the active
serial port, and a File_Capture function to capture text sent from a
terminal into a specified file.  This set of functions allows files to
be managed from within the QED environment and/or the PC environment. 
Files can be created on one platform and read and modified on the
other.

4. The automated file processing and redirection layer enables the
programmer to specify a file to be automatically processed by the
QED-Forth interpreter/compiler at startup.  The software searches the
root directory of a detected CF card for a file named "AUTOEXEC.QED"
and, if it is found, interprets and executes the commands in the file. 
Two easy-to-use functions named Page_To_File and File_To_Page can be
invoked in the autoexec file to store memory contents in a file, or
transfer file contents to memory.  This enables software upgrades to be
performed in the field by simply plugging in a CF card that contains
the proper update files.  Finally, a powerful Redirect function allows
any function to take its input from a specified file, and/or send its
output to a specified file.

Please consult the CF Module documentation for a complete description
of the software.

