BSS Audio FDS-388 OMNIDRIVE Owner's Manual - Manual (Page 43)

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18.0 PCMCIA Card
PCMCIA Card
Card Types
Smart Card Format
The Smart Card socket on the front of the unit is designed to use PCMCIA2
memory cards of between 128kbyte and 2Mbyte storage capacity. Files are
stored on the card in a ‘Pseudo-floppy’ format using standard DOS structures.
See the box at the end of this section for compatibility information. As existing
Flash memory cards have erase and re-write limitations, only SRAM memory
cards are fully supported in the current Smart card software. The exception is
that a full set-up (an XAL file) is stored to a Flash card when it is formatted .
The Flash card set-up can then be read at any time, but only written to by
performing a complete format again. This is useful for archive purposes as
Flash cards have no batteries to run down. The FDS-388 has been tested using
Fujitsu 256k FLASH cards.
Formatting a FLASH card will also write an XAL file to the card. If a FLASH
card is detected when a FORMAT is STARTed, the card is formatted as usual
and then a single XAL file is written to the card using the current unit data. No
further SAVE operations can be performed on a FLASH card although the saved
XAL file can be LOADed at any time.
Flash cards should be the older Series 1 Flash cards. Newer Series 2 Flash
cards may not work.
The Smart Card interface requires 68pin PCMCIA2 compatible memory cards.
Attribute memory is not required and is not used. The most appropriate card
size for the FDS-388 is the 256k byte card which can hold up to 14 complete
setup (XAL) files. 18.1 Card Types
SRAM CARDS
128k, 256k, 512k, 1M, 2M. Battery life varies with manufacturer and memory
size and should be checked with the card supplier. Expect 4 years or more
from a 256k card or around a year with 1Mbyte and above.
Cards are now becoming available from manufacturers such as Centennial that
are rechargable. These cards should periodically be left in the card slot of an
FDS-388 for a few hours to recharge. Expected battery life for rechargable
cards when not plugged into a unit is expected to be around one year; this
should be checked with the card supplier.
FLASH CARDS
256k, 512k, 1M, 2M. All FLASH cards are formatted as 256k with a single
ALLDATA file recorded on them. The FDS-388 has been tested using Series 1
flash cards: e.g. Centennial FL256-20-1XXXX-XX.
The Smart Card filing system on the FDS-388 uses a ‘pseudo-floppy’ format.
Formatting a Card on the FDS-388 writes a standard PC DOS format to the
card beginning at byte 0 as if it were the first byte on a disc. The format writes
a DOS boot sector with basic format data but does not write boot software.
This is followed by a single File Allocation Table (FAT) starting at byte 200H.
The root directory is written with one entry, a sub-directory called BSSDATA.
All data files used by the remote are stored in the BSSDATA sub-directory as
there are limits to the number of files that can be stored in the root directory. 18.2 Smart Card
Format
NOTE: