CardTrick* 3 Flash File System

Datalight began providing flash file systems to the embedded PC market in 1990 and currently supports the Intel Series 2 and Series 2+ flash components. CardTrick was introduced in 1993 as a full-featured flash file system that utilized the DOS File Allocation Table (FAT) file system rather than including a separate installable file system. This latest version of CardTrick introduces patent pending methods of addressing flash memory, called Variable Block Flash (VBF). The flash memory, when configured with the CardTrick VBF driver, appears to the system as a disk. CardTrick then can be used with software and disk utilities, such as Stacker* or Norton Utilities* that otherwise might not function.
CardTrickŠs VBF technology provides a sector based file system resulting in fast, efficient reading and writing to flash memory. CardTrick3 has smaller code and data requirements than previous versions using the Flash Translation Layer (FTL) method. In addition, CardTrick3 VBF only needs an average footprint of 1 byte per sector compared to 8 bytes per sector for FTL. It is easily adapted for Intel flash and CardTrick3Šs fixed data buffer supports up to 32 MB of flash memory.
CardTrick can be loaded as a device driver after the operating system is loaded, or as a BIOS extension if you want to lead the operating system from flash memory. It communicates with flash memory through DatalightŠs OEM layer which accesses flash memory directly. To use CardTrick with Resident Flash Array, available from Intel, a standard OEM layer is included in the Software DeveloperŠs Kit in full source code. The OEM layer can be customized to support any hardware setup. It is easily linked into the full CardTrick flash file system through a single driver. CardTrick will then provide all standard feature for custom hardware.