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2.4
FLASH MEMORY
By default the TP400 is fitted with one 2M-byte AMD or Fujitsu 29F016 Flash memory
chip. However, the TP400 has sites for two flash chips, and the 4M byte 29F032 can
be fitted as an alternative to the 29F016. Thus there are options for 4M or 8M bytes
of Flash memory as well as the standard 2M-byte complement. The 4M and 8M byte
options are available by special order and are subject to a minimum order quantity.
Flash memory is non-volatile memory that can be programmed while it is soldered to
the TP400. Data written to the Flash memory is retained after power is removed.
The Flash memory serves two purposes. Firstly, it contains the BIOS:
machine-dependent software that is required to run an operating system.
The second function of the Flash memory is to provide a Flash File System for users
who want a solid state disk.
The top 256k bytes of the Flash chip are used for the system BIOS and any BIOS
extensions, such as the VGA BIOS extension and the Flash File System BIOS
extension. The TP400 comes pre-programmed with a system BIOS, a VGA BIOS
extension for on-chip graphics controller and a Flash File System BIOS extension.
See section 2.5 for more information on memory mapping of the TP400, and section
6.3 for more information on BIOS extensions.
Utility programs are provided on the TP400 Utility Disks that allow the Flash chip to
be programmed by the user. This allows the user to program various alternative BIOS
image files into the Flash memory. These utility programs are described in section
6.5.
A Flash File System is provided with every TP400. This converts the remaining 1744k
bytes of the 2M byte Flash chip into a non-volatile read-write logical disk drive. This
Flash disk can contain the MS-DOS operating system as well as your application
program. The Flash File System is described in section 6.6.
Optionally, 4M byte and 8M byte Flash disks are available.
The TP400 allows the Flash File System to access the large Flash chips through a
window in the 1M byte address space. Memory management logic in the Geode GX1
and hardware in the Super I/O chip allows the high order address lines of the Flash
chip to be changed by software. The Flash File System driver software controls the
memory management logic and bank switch hardware transparently to the user’s
software.
The Flash File System is intended for ROM-DOS and MS-DOS. In principle Flash file
systems could be created for other operating systems, such as Linux, QNX, OS/9
and VxWorks, but at the time of writing this work has not been done and DSP Design
cannot provide FFS drivers for these operating systems. This situation may change in
the future, so contact us if you have an interest in these operating systems.
The Flash chip resides on the eight-bit PC/104 data bus.
The BIOS makes use of "shadow RAM" in place of the Flash chip for greater speed.
In this scheme the BIOS contained within the Flash chip is copied by the BIOS to
SDRAM at the same addresses. The Flash chip is then disabled and the BIOS is
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