PCMCIA Technical Info

PCMCIA Technical Info
This page is designed for developers of LANpoint PRO or FACTORYpoint PRO applications and focuses on the 2 General Purpose PCMCIA slots on the unit.

[ Topics of Interest | Overview | Programming Considerations | Common Questions ]
[ Back to FACTORYpoint PRO & LANpoint PRO Developer's Site ]

Inizio

Topics of Interest

Choosing the right PCMCIA card

Using a wireless ethernet IEEE802.11 card in the unit

Using the unit to make another bootable SRAM card

Inizio

Overview
The PCMCIA slots in the LANpoint PRO units are standard PCMCIA-compliant slots which fully support the industry standard 365SL register set. The controller is the Cirrus Logic PD-6720. This means that the socket services for the 365SL controller will work on the PRO. However, to take full advantage of the additional features of the Cirrus controller, the Cirrus Logic socket service driver is preferred (sscirrus.exe).

The slots do not support 12V cards. However, since all SRAM cards, most hard disk drives and most FLASH-based cards operate on 5V only, this is generally not a problem. The unit also supports 3.3V cards. The best possible investment you can make if you will be doing a lot of development work, is a PCMCIA adapter kit for your desktop PC, or a laptop that supports PCMCIA SRAM cards. With this, files may be easily transferred to new PCMCIA cards and the cards may be easily formatted. We use a Dual Slot Desktop adapter from QUATECH. They may be reached at:

QUATECH
662 Wolf Ledges Parkway
Akron, OHIO 44311-1520
PH: 216-434-3154
FAX: 216-434-1409

Other vendors are available.

Inizio

Programming Considerations
  One PCMCIA slot must be used for a bootable system card. It does not matter which slot is used if there is only one card in the system, or if the second card is not bootable.

  If two bootable cards are in the system, the unit will boot off of the card in the bottom slot. If only one card is to be used in the system, then the bottom slot is the preferred choice. This is because the card in the bottom slot is able to physically rest on the controller chip and thus is better supported physically. If only one card is in the system then NO PCMCIA DRIVERS NEED TO BE LOADED! This is because a utility called "Cardboot" from SystemSoft loads as a BIOS extension and handles booting from and interfacing with the card. The 0xE000 segment should always be excluded from emm386.exe use, since it contains the Cardboot code and the virtual text screen which is used when there is no VGA Card in the system. On the standard Microsoft DOS SRAM card supplied by Intelligent Instrumentation, you'll see something like:

Device = \dos\emm386.exe x=D000-DFFF x=E000-EFFF

CARDSOFT 3.12 DRIVERS
  You only need to use these drivers if you will be using a second PCMCIA card in the system. Currently the use of two cards is only supported when booting from an SRAM card. When booting from an SRAM card, the only drivers you need to load are for your second card. Drivers for the card you just booted from are not required since "Cardboot" is providing the interface for it. Examples from a few config.sys files are shown below:

TO USE ANOTHER SRAM CARD IN THE SECOND SLOT

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\SSCIRRUS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CSALLOC.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTSRAM.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTDDRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CARDID.EXE

TO USE A HARD DISK DRIVE OR ATA FLASH DISK IN THE SECOND SLOT

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\SSCIRRUS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CSALLOC.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\ATADRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CARDID.EXE

TO USE AN AMD D SERIES FLASH CARD IN THE SECOND SLOT

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\SSCIRRUS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CS.EXE 
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CSALLOC.EXE 
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTAA.EXE       
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTAB.EXE   
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTI1.EXE
rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTI2P.EXE              
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTSRAM.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\MTDDRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\FTL.EXE           
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CARDS312\CARDID.EXE

  NOTE: The config.sys examples shown above are also what you would need for your desktop adapter to support the different card types. Since the socket service driver is controller specific, you may need a different socket service driver (which is the first one loaded and always starts with the letters "SS").

  One very nice feature of MS-DOS is the menuing option that is available in the config.sys and autoexec.bat files. As DOS boots, you can be prompted to select which driver set you wish to load. Here is an example of using the menu feature in MS-DOS 6.22:

Config.sys menuing example:

config.men

  The same menu option can be made to extend into your autoexec.bat file as well. Here is an example of doing just that:

autoexec.men

Inizio

Common Questions
Q1: My SRAM PCMCIA Card appears to be corrupted. What should I do?

A1: If the SRAM card's internal battery gets low, the card can get some corrupted files which may prevent it from booting. If it is then re-formatted on your desktop or laptop system, it will appear that the card's capacity has decreased. All that is needed in this case is the following:

1. First run SCANDISK on the card to reclaim the lost clusters.
2. Then format the card (FORMAT D: /u /s) to make it bootable again. Note that formatting on a Windows95 or 98 laptop does not format with DOS system files. You must use a special utility or a true DOS PC to system-format a PCMCIA card (or diskette, for that matter) when you want it to boot to DOS.

It is always a good idea to have a complete backup directory structure of what is on the card on your desktop or other PC. Additional cards may then be quickly generated using the xcopy *.* D: /s command.

Q2: Should I write protect my SRAM PCMCIA Card?

A2: Treat the SRAM Card just like a floppy. If you are sure that you don't need to write to it, and you want to protect its contents from accidentally being erased, then write protect it. Most applications will probably need to write to the card at some point.

[ Back to FACTORYpoint PRO & LANpoint PRO Developer's Site ]
[ Home | Inizio |

Richiedi informazioni

]