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Flash Memory

Compact Flash Memory は使えるか?

IDE インターフェースを備えたものがあるようですね[注1]。そういうものは使えるそうです。
注1: 次の forsyth@terzarima.net の投稿を参照してください。
	From: 	  geoff@collyer.net
	Subject: 	[9fans] booting a 9 pc without using any disk nor a prom burner
	Date: 	2004年2月23日 16:52:22:JST
	To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu
	Reply-To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu

I've just booted my (Pentium Pro) terminal without using any rotating
disk.

I bought a compact-flash-to-IDE converter from PC Engine.  It's called
the CFDISK.5D and I got mine from http://store.ituner.com/ituner (in
Fremont, CA) for US$20.  Look under `CF IDE Adapters'.  There are
other variations and you might want to buy one of them instead if
there isn't room to insert the CFDISK.5D directly into an IDE
controller slot on your motherboard.

For booting Plan 9, you can use the smallest compact flash card you
can find (I had a 4MB and a 10MB lying around, but the smallest you
can buy new seems to be 32MB).  Currently you can buy 16MB Sandisk
cards for US$10.50 at http://www.stores.ebay.com/fcoelectronics.

The example of setting up a disk in prep(8) almost works but you only
want the 9fat, and prep expects 9fat to be exactly 10MB (leaving no
room on a 10MB card for boot blocks, etc.).  I ran prep by hand to set
up a slightly smaller 9fat on my 10MB card.

The CFDISK.5D (but perhaps not some of the variants) requires a 4-pin
floppy power cable and many machines provide only one (and you'll need
that to boot until you populate your compact flash card).  I got those
at CompUSA for US$13.

Make a plan9 boot floppy per the example in prep(8).  Copy your
machine's plan9.ini (and nvram in plan9.nvr if it has one) somewhere
handy, like /tmp.

Once you've gathered all those parts, turn off your machine (at the
power supply if possible), insert the compact flash card into the
CFDISK.5D or relative (it slides in easily), connect the floppy power
cable to a free power connector inside the PC and the other end to the
CFDISK.5D at the floppy-style power connector.  Insert the CFDISK.5D
into the first free IDE connector on your motherboard (I had to use
the second one due to short-sighted physical design of my machine).
It's keyed so you can't insert it wrong-way-round.  At this point your
machine probably won't boot off your existing disks nor your
(uninitialised) compact flash, so insert the boot floppy and turn the
machine on.  When it comes up, format the compact flash per the
example in prep(8), modulo the possible need to partition it by hand.
You should now be able to remove the boot floppy (and any other disks
you no longer need) and reboot.  The machine should come up by booting
from the compact flash (mine did, first time).

So that's US$43.50 per machine, plus shipping, but it won't wear out
from being read (like a floppy) and is utterly quiet (unlike a regular
disk).  It seems like just the thing to make sure that your main file
server and CPU server boot unattended.

コンパクトフラッシュは IDE インターフェースで設計されているそうです。それであれば PCI スロットに差し込むタイプのものは使えるのではないかと思えます。

	From: 	  forsyth@terzarima.net
	Subject: 	Re: [9fans] disk/^(mbr format fdisk prep)
	Date: 	2004年5月8日 20:38:58:JST
	To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu
	Reply-To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu

>No, I think what I have is raw Flash.  I have a USB reader/writer and
>a thin client that treats Flash RAM as IDE (approximately, haven't
>quite figured out all the details yet).  The think client is a bit of

it sounds as though you're using Compact Flash, which isn't really
very `raw'.   the Compact Flash cards are commonly accessed
using an ATA (IDE) IO interface, either by initialising in the
same way as PCMCIA (CF and PCMCIA are almost the same
except for form factor and a few other details), or by forcing
it into a default ATA interface directly on power up.
there's a bit more to it than that, but by and large, after setup,
it looks like a disk, and it does all that inside the CF card.
so, unlike raw flash memory, the disk/* commands are indeed
what you'd use, unlike for `raw flash'.
動作確認の情報
	From: 	  okamoto@granite.cias.osakafu-u.ac.jp
	Subject: 	[9fans] Compact Flash standalone AUTH server
	Date: 	2004年5月13日 11:43:22:JST
	To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu
	Reply-To: 	  9fans@cse.psu.edu

Ok! Now, I started to use Compact Flash as our Auth server's
kfs, which means standalone AUTH server.

The machine is floppy- disk-less Celeron 366MHz Mitsubishi
Aprocot CX-200 (very old machine!) with 160MB SDRAM.
This machine has LAN card on its board (i82557).

The Compact Flash is Toshiba THNCF256MMA (256MB), and
an IDE interface card of "IR-ICF01S".   This machine does only
/bin/service.auth.

Kenji

IDE インターフェースカードは