[NTLK] PCMCIA for the brave...

Sylvain Pilet sylvain at pilet.net
Mon Feb 15 02:07:52 PST 2021


Matthias,


> The files that you downloaded using Hammer (I call them the data/cis snapshots) need to be converted into an image (.pccard) first. You can do that by choosing
> 
> [Settings > PC Cards > [+] > Create Image from Snapshot…]

Ok I understand. It works perfectly with all memory cards, but it doesn't work with "software" type cards like Fodor, Fortune500, and other ColomboMystery...

It might be necessary to indicate that you should choose in order: 
- first the file containing the image from the memory card 
- and secondly the .CIS file (containing the identification of this memory card).
And that this will create another .pccard file.


> That would be quite difficult. I am not sure if I can convince a MessagePad to actually write to the cards. Flash RAM is very different than conventional RAM. You can't just write into it. You need to send commands to the Flash (for example, "erase block"), and then you can only clear bits. You can never set bits in Flash RAM (only "erase" big blocks, meaning, set all bits to 1).
> 
> Problem is, every Flash Card uses different Flash chips inside, arranged in different ways, using different protocols. The CIS file describes just that. If a Chip/Manufacturer/Layout combination is not supported by NewtonOS, the card becomes Read Only.
> 
> So, yes, with my current knowledge (and implementation) I can safely write 2MB Intel Flash cards, but none else ;-)

So it's the same with Hammer, you can't write anything else than 2Mb cards?
We agree that we write only from 98000000, and especially not from 90000000-90001000 which contains only the information of the card, or also from its "catalog" ?


Sylvain Pilet

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