Hi Don, > >I wonder if the problem was with the cameras or the CF cards since the > >same CF card could be used in a Canon, a Nikon, a Cisco router, > >etc..... Does the camera, or device that uses a CF card, just present > >the file to the CF card? Each might have it's own way of formatting > >the data so the logic in the CF card would have the job of knowing where > >it is and where to put the next file..... I have never tried pulling a > >CF card out of a Nikon and putting it in my 20D. > > There's firmware in both. The CF or SD card has to look like an IDE > drive, so that's its firmware.
I don't believe there is any firmware in the CF card, at least to operate the card. The card could hold firmware in it's FLASH, and be used to boot a processor, but that's not the case in a typical CF card used for a camera. It's pure hardware that makes the FLASH chips look like an IDE drive. Firmware implies a processor executes code (the firmware) and that would simply be too slow. > The logic in the CF card can be either a general-purpose MCU with the > necessary firmware, or an ASIC or gate array, with the 'firmware' in > the synthesis rules. As I said, an MCU would be too slow to be useful, it's all done in hardware. The code used for gate arrays is still hardware, there is nothing firmware about it, unless the gate array has a processor in it, but the programming of the hardware it self is not firmware. Even a LUT (Look Up Table) is not firmware. I've been in the ASIC/hardware design business for some 30 years (I'm an EE) and we never call the code used for ASICs etc. firmware. I've also designed quite a few CF/SD etc. interfaces. I have heard some software people try to call it firmware, since they don't understand what really happens, and in cases where it loads from a FLASH in some FPGA applications, it's marginally able to be called firmware since it's not really code that is being executed by a processor, but simply configuring the hardware logic. If you do have any info that there is a processor in any CF cards, I'd like to know about it, but from what I can tell, that wouldn't be a viable solution. Of course there is a processor in the disk drives, but that is used to control the drive, and that's not a Compact "FLASH" really. Regards, Austin * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
