BOTHELL, Wash. — Datalight, a provider of system software for embedded devices, today announced that the latest release of their flash media manager, FlashFX v4.04, will offer support for the Linux operating system.

Adding Linux support to existing QNX support gives FlashFX a more solid presence in the real-time operating system market. Within a design using FlashFX, Linux is provided with the ability to read and write to standard flash memory devices as if they were a standard disk drive. “FlashFX is strictly a software based solution,” explained Keith Garvin, Datalight's Engineering Manager. “It is, therefore, more compact and cost effective than competitive hardware-only solutions.”

FlashFX provides a low-cost flash software solution for the development of real-time embedded systems that require low power. Applications for FlashFX include embedded flash designs such as smart phones and pagers, handheld computers and similar devices.

FlashFX Enables Hard Disk Drive Emulation for Linux

To accomplish hard-disk emulation, FlashFX incorporates Variable Block Flash (VBF), a patented data format that emulates small sectors within a resident flash part. VBF provides high performance due to its ability to handle variable data block sizes while writing and reading data. In the case of a power failure, VBF provides data protection by preventing corruption of low-level media structures. By virtue of its layered design, FlashFX is easily ported to many CPUs.

According to Roy Sherrill, Datalight founder and president, “the current implementation of FlashFX for Linux is usable as a non-booting drive.” Sherrill expects a Linux-bootable version of FlashFX to become available in approximately one month.

Pricing & Availability

FlashFX is available on a buyout basis for $20,000 per project. A single project is defined as one product using a single CPU (different revisions are o.k.) a single O.S for a single, well defined purpose. Additional project buyouts are only $15,000 for the same company. The SDK is available for $495. For more information contact: [email protected]or call 800/221-6630

About Datalight

Datalight develops and licenses professional quality system software, including operating systems and development tools for the x86 architecture. The company's products include: ROM-DOS, an MS-DOS compatible operating system; WinLight, an MS-Windows work-a-like operating system; Sockets, a TCP/IP stack, and ThinSystem, a compact operating system for thin client OEMs. Technology companies throughout the world depend on Datalight software for a multitude of industrial and consumer applications. FlashFX holds Patent No. 5,860,082.

 
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