need drivers/manual for M-Systems PC-FD card

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Wed Feb 4 18:04:24 2004

At 06:41 PM 2/4/04 -0500, you wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
>To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 5:39 PM
>Subject: need drivers/manual for M-Systems PC-FD card
>
>
>> I found a box full of these today. They appear to be disk drive
>> emulators using Flash memory. M-systems is still in business but they say
>> that these reached end of life in 1999 and don't have any software or
>> manuals for them. Does anyone remember how to program and use these?
>> They're half length 8-bit ISA cards.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>
>What model do you have?

   PC-FD with two 1Mbyte Flash chips. Oops! Juat found a sticker that says
Pc-FD-2 so I'm sure that it's a 2Mb card. BTW there are lots of unused pads
for more ICs. I wonder if more Flash memory can be added?


>
>I dug up my Industrial Computer Source Catalog from 1999 (Edition 1) and on
>page 59 they have the PCFD family of FLASH disks.
>
>PCFD 1V to PCFD 32V ( 1,2,3,8,16,32 mb FLASH disk, ISA Bus Card half
>length). They also came in PC/104 versions.
>
>It states there are no drivers required.

   One website that I found hinted that but I wasn't sure. It hints that
the programming Sw is built into the cards on-board BIOS but no hint about
how to access it.

>
>"The "disk" becomes immediately available as either drive D: if you already
>have a fixed disk, or drive C: if it is the only "fixed disk" in the system.
>It can work in conjunction with floppy disk drives. Up to four boards can be
>installed in a system providing up to 128MB of FLASH DISK drive"

   That sounds right. There's jumpers on the card to set them to any one of
four addresses.

>
>Features:
>
>Up to 128MB FLASH Drive Capacity
>ISA and PC/104 Models
>Fill Read/Write Capabilities
>No Drivers Required
>Bootable Flash File System
>MS-DOS, DR-DOS and Windows Compatible
>
>
>Hope this is of help, I think I had full M-Systems catalogs back in the
>1990's but probably left them at my old employer back in 1999.

   Yes, that helps clarify things a bit. Thanks.

    Joe
Received on Wed Feb 04 2004 - 18:04:24 GMT