AIS Router AI2524 - Manual (Page 124)

AI2524 Router Card User’s Manual
Page 7-24 August 1997
2524UM
Perform Startup
Tasks The startup tasks in this section are optional.
Startup Task List
You can perform these optional startup tasks:
z Partition Flash Memory Using Dual Flash Bank
z Use Flash Load Helper to Upgrade Software on Run-from-Flash
Systems
Partition Flash Memory Using Dual Flash Bank
Dual Flash bank allows you to partition banks of Flash memory into
separate, logical devices so that the router can hold and maintain two
different software images. (A bank is a set of four chips.) No down-
time is required: you can write software into Flash memory while run-
ning software in another bank of Flash memory.
Systems that Support Dual Flash Bank
To use dual Flash bank, you must have at least two banks of Flash
memory. The minimum partition size is the size of a bank.
Dual Flash bank is supported on low-end systems that have at least two
banks of Flash memory, including systems that support a single SIMM
that has two banks of Flash memory.
Benefits
Partitioning Flash memory provides these benefits:
z For any system, partitioning—rather than having one logical Flash
memory device—provides a cleaner way of managing different
files in Flash memory, especially if the Flash memory size is large.
z For systems that execute code out of Flash memory, partitioning
allows you to download a new image into the file system in one
Flash memory bank while an image is being executed from the file
system in the other bank. The download is simple and causes no
network disruption or downtime. After the download is complete,
you can switch over to the new image at a convenient time.
z One system can hold two different images, one image acting as
backup for the other. Therefore, if a downloaded image fails to
boot for some reason, the earlier running, good image is still avail-
able. Each bank is treated as a separate device.