Compact Flash FAQs

Compact Flash What is Compact Flash?

CompactFlash is the world’s smallest removable mass storage device. First introduced in 1994 by SanDisk Corporation, CF TM cards weigh a half ounce and are the size of a matchbook. They provide complete PCMCIA-ATA functionality and compatibility. Compact Flash is a small, removable mass storage commonly used in digital cameras.

Where will CompactFlash be used?
Several leading consumer electronics companies, including the CFA’s roster of founding members, are designing CF technology into next-generation products being developed for mass markets. The CFA expects CF technology will be widely used in such products as portable and desktop computers, digital cameras, handheld data collection scanners, cellular phones, PCS phones, PDAs, handy terminals, personal communicators, advanced two-way pagers, audio recorders, monitoring devices and set-top boxes. CF technology offers all of these applications new and expanded functionality while enabling smaller and lighter designs.

What is the difference between Type I and Type II?
Type I is 3.3mm thick, while Type II is 5mm thick. A CF Type II device will not fit in a Type I slot.

How do I format my Compact Flash drive?
Formatting a Compact Flash drive can be accomplished several ways. The most common method of formatting a Compact Flash drive is within the device in which the Compact Flash drive will be used. This will ensure a device compatible format and the best overall performance.

How do I interface the CF drive with my PC or Mac?
Compact Flash drives are connected to desktop/laptops computers through flash memory card readers. A typical card reader will contain multiple flash memory slots to accommodate the different types of memory. The card readers are most commonly attached to the computer via a USB or IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interface cable.

Do I need drivers for my OS?
Compact Flash drives do not require drivers. However, when the drive is attached through a card reader, the proper drivers for the card reader must be installed before the drive can be accessed.

Can I use this in my PDA? Does this drive require drivers?
The Compact Flash drive can be used in any PDA that will support Compact Flash Type II drives with high capacity. This is not a supported hardware environment.

While many PDA operating systems do not require drivers, some of the older operating systems, such as Windows CE, will require a driver before the drive can be accessed.

Can I install an OS onto this drive?
Depending on the operating system in use, it may be possible to install an OS onto the Compact Flash drive. Since this is not the intended purpose of the drive, the performance may be less than desired and no support will be provided.

What is the speed of my Compact Flash card?
Solid state CF memory cards are differentiated by a speed number:

Compact Flash Speeds
Speed
Kbytes/s
Mbytes/s
1
150
0.15
4
600
0.6
12
1800
1.8
24
3600
3.6
40
6000
6
60
9000
9
80
12000
12

What is the difference between FAT16 and FAT32, why do cards greater than 2GB require FAT32?
File Allocation Tables (FAT) are like a table of contents to your data. Prior to Windows 98, 16-bit FATs limited partitions to 2.1 Gbytes. The newer 32-bit FAT is capable of huge partitions up to two Tbytes (terabytes). Many digital cameras only support 16-bit FAT (FAT), newer cameras and high-end professional cameras usually support 32-bit FAT (FAT32). Check your camera’s manual or support information to determine if your camera supports FAT32 (memory larger than 2.1Gbytes).

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Glossary of Samsung Hard Disk Drive (Letter A)

Acoustic Noise
The level of sound the drive produces while operating, the smaller the number,the better

Access
The level of sound the drive produces while operating, the smaller the number,the better

Access time
Access time measures the time lapsed between the access command and the point in time where the head is positioned to read or write a specific sector (address), measured in milliseconds (ms). (The access time for HDDs is a combination of seek time, controller overhead, and rotational latency, i.e. time taken for desired sector to rotate under head for access)

Actuator
The mechanism that moves the head(s) to the correct cylinder. It generally comprises of two parts; a rotary voice coil and head gimble assembly. The actuator arm houses the head at the tip of its arm

Address
Assigning certain areas of a disk to particular data

Areal Density
Bit density; Bits per Inch (BPI) x Tracks per Inch (TPI). This reflects how dense the data is stored on the media of the HDD

ATA-3
Fast ATA (E-IDE), PIO Mode 4, S.M.A.R.T., Simple password, more sophisticated power management

Atapi
ATA packet interface, a communications protocol which allows the electronic controllers for IDE hard disk drives to handle up to four devices, including CD-ROMs and tape drives and tape drive, Atapi devices plug into the IDE Interface

Ultra-ATA
Merge of ATA-3 and Atapi into one, Strong command overlap

Ultra-ATA
A new, even higher performance Ultra DMA (transfer rate of 66 MB/s)

AV
Audio Visual. AV drives denotes drivers modified to enhance transfer rate performance for specific applications

Average Latency
The average amount of time it takes for the drive to rotate to the correct address, so that the head can begin reading or writing in its desired location (is derived from the spindle speed)

AVI
Audio video interleaved. A standard system, form Microsoft, for integrating sound and vision for Windows into a single file for hard disk or CD-ROM

Average Seek Time
The average time for a head to seek the address, calculated over a large number of random seeks

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Test: How Secure Is Your Data?

With the increasing reliance on today’s computer systems and networks for the day to day running of businesses, there is an imminent threat to business continuity. Computer systems can be affected by a variety of sources: power outages, water leaks, systems failures, etc. Most companies have some sort of backup system in place, example UPS for power failure, but fail to take into account other hidden factors. It is no longer a question of if you will experience system or environment failures, but when. The 10-question quiz that follows can assist in assessing your company’s risk of experiencing downtime due to system or environment failures.

1. How many hours of continual data processing does your business do over a 24 hour period?
Threat: The average company’s hourly downtime accounts for $78,000 in lost revenue?
8 hours or less (10 points)
8 to 16 hours (75 points)
16 to 24 hours (100 points)

2. How much downtime can your business afford?
Threat: Computer downtime cost US businesses $4 billion a year, primarily through lost revenue.
1 week to 1 month (10 points)
2 days to 1 week (75 points)
1 day or less (100 points)

3. What is your business system or data worth?
Threat: 43% of U. S. Business never re-open after a disaster experience and 29% close with in 2 years.
$10,000 or less (10 points)
$10,000 to 100,000 (75 points)
$100,000 or more (100 points)

4. How many users does your computer system support?
Threat: The manufacturing industry lost an average of $421,000 per incident of on-line computer systems downtime.
1 to 10 users (10 points)
10 to 100 users (75 points)
100 or more users (100 points)

5. How much down time have you experienced over the last year?
Threat: The average company’s computer system was down 9 times per year for an average of 4 hours each time.
20 hours or less (10 points)
20 to 150 hours (75 points)
150 or more hours (100 points)

6. How many hours is your data center unattended?
Threat: The average company’s hourly downtime costs an average of $330,000 per outage.
1 hour or less (10 points)
1 hour to 8 hours (75 points)
8 hours or more (100 points)

7. What percentage of your systems and environmental conditions (temperature, water, and smoke) are you monitoring with an early detection system?
Threat: Environmental incident’s accounted for 10. 3% of business interruptions in the past 5 years.
90% or more (10 points)
70 to 90% (75 points)
70% or less (100 points)

8. How many hours has your UPS had to back up your system this year?
Threat: Power problems accounted for 29. 48% of U.S. computer outages.
3 or less hours (10 points)
3 to 8 hours (75 points)
8 or more hours (100 points)

9. If your system went down on Friday at midnight, how long would it be before you are notified?
Threat: A 1993 Gallup/GRN survey reported that Fortune 1000 companies average 1.6 hours of LAN downtime per week [that is over 2 weeks per year].
3 or less hours (10 points)
3 to 8 hours (75 points)
8 or more hours (100 points)

10. How many people have access to your main computer room ?
Threat: Human error accounted for 34. 4% of business interruptions in the past 5 years
3 or less (10 points)
3 to 10 (75 points)
10 or more (100 points)

Scoring :

165 and under: Your computer room is either very well protected or computer room down time will not affect your business.
165-799: You have trouble spots in your computer room; proactive steps taken now will help you avoid trouble in the future.
800 and over: Your computer room and quite possibly your job are in serious jeopardy. Look into ways of securing your computer room before disaster strike’s time is ticking.

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Glossary of Hard Disk Drive Terminology (Letter T)

Tagged Queuing
The ability of the drive to receive multiple I/O processes from each initiator.

Task File
The set of I/O Host Interface Registers used to transfer status, commands, and data between the host and the drive for the EIDE interface.

Thin Client Architecture
A computer system in which data is stored centrally, with only limited storage capacity at the various points of use.

Thin Film
A type of coating deposited on a flat surface through a photolithographic process. Thin film is used on disk platters and read/write heads, as well as on the write element of MR heads.

Thin-Film Inductive Head (TFI)
A head technology that uses a thin-film inductive element to read and write data bits on the magnetic surface of the disk.

Time-to-Capacity
Getting to market first with the next highest capacity hard drive.

Time-to-Market
The time it takes to bring a product from concept to market. Generally first-to-market is the desired time-to-market goal.

Time-to-Quality
The time required to bring a new product to market with the best possible level of quality and reliability.

Time-to-Volume
The time required to begin producing a new product in sufficiently high volume to fill commercial requirements.

TPI (Tracks per inch)
The number of tracks written within each inch of the disk’s surfaces, used to measure how closely the tracks are packed on a disk surface. Also known as track density.

Track
A concentric magnetic circle pattern on a disk surface used for storing and reading data.

Track-to-track Seek Time
The time that elapses when the read/write heads move from one track to an adjacent track.

Transfer Rate
The rate at which the hard drive sends and receives data from the controller. Processing, head switches, and seeks are all figured into the transfer rate in order to accurately portray drive performance. The burst mode transfer rate is separate from transfer rate, as it refers only to the transfer of data into RAM.

Translating BIOS
A system BIOS that allows access to EIDE drives larger than 528 MB.

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