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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Doppie1200 on July 22, 2006, 08:50:23 AM

Title: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Doppie1200 on July 22, 2006, 08:50:23 AM: Hi,

I'd like to get me a 1GB Compact flash. Will it also work on my A600/1200. I use cfd and fat95 on my current compact flash. There is no limit described (or I have been looking poorly). But I'm sure there is a limit.

Anyone?

Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: systmcrsh on July 22, 2006, 09:16:46 AM: i imagine it would be 4gb... just like ide limit. no reason to think otherwise, unless something in cfd or fat95 wont access data beyond a certain ammount. i use a 256mb sandisk card & sandisk reader no problems... i just know that some flashcards and cardreaders dont work. best to stick with the brand you currently use.
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Chain on July 22, 2006, 09:18:30 AM: im using 512mb sandisk, without any problems
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: jimbo100 on July 22, 2006, 10:50:05 AM: So you can plug a CF Card (with PCMCIA adaptor) larger than 4MB into the PCMCIA slot of an Amiga 600/1200 and it will work?
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Thomas on July 22, 2006, 12:58:49 PM: Quote
So you can plug a CF Card (with PCMCIA adaptor) larger than 4MB into the PCMCIA slot of an Amiga 600/1200 and it will work?

Certainly. Why shouldn't you ? The PCMCIA port has an address space limit of 4MB, but a CF adapter does not need any address space except a few I/O registers.

The limit of CF cards depend on the implementation of the cfd.device or whatever it's called. If it implements NSD or TD64 commands, there is not even a 4GB limit.

Bye,
Thomas
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: jimbo100 on July 22, 2006, 01:12:18 PM: So does it get used as system memory or storage space. Reason I ask if I am about to obtain a A600 and I have plenty of spare CF cards.

What is cfd.device, software? Where does one obtain it?
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Akiko on July 22, 2006, 01:42:09 PM: @Jimbo

Have a look here for adapter and software, very good and easy setup! http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=440&osCsid=d3aab37e69965514ec6ce2c5813bc890
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: jimbo100 on July 22, 2006, 02:17:50 PM: Yes I have one of them already...what I wanted to know was how the A600 would use it if I plugged a 32MB CF card into it?

Would it become system memory or storage space and would I need to have additional software in order to use it.

For the picture I'd assume its going to be storage space?
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Chain on July 22, 2006, 02:32:50 PM: yup, it will be like removable HDD
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: countzero on July 22, 2006, 02:51:02 PM: Quote

jimbo100 wrote:
Would it become system memory or storage space and would I need to have additional software in order to use it.

you'll need the fat95 filesystem driver and cfd.device, both of which are available at aminet.
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: amigagr on July 22, 2006, 02:52:20 PM: Quote

Doppie1200 wrote:
Hi,

I'd like to get me a 1GB Compact flash.

i'm using an 1gb kingston cf with pcmcia adaptor and fat95. it's fine :-)
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: Doppie1200 on July 29, 2006, 01:17:34 PM: Unfortunately the 'peak 1GB' I just bought does not work at all. :-? :getmad: :madashell: :angry: Now I have to think up an excuse to trade it in!
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: LoadWB on July 31, 2006, 06:37:55 PM: I just received my PQI 4GB CF card today from Digi4Me (only $84.) It came formatted FAT32 so I had to reformat it on the XP machine to FAT: I had to use the Disk Manager and I received a warning that the allocation units would be > 32k. I also had to change the filesystem in the CF0 mountlist from l:CrossDOSFileSystem to l:fat95. Now it recognizes the CF card as a 4GB drive. I will be copying stuff over to it to make sure it really works, but right now c:info recognizes it as 4008MB, 561 used, 8209536 free, 0% used.

I could possibly format it with the proper cf0: to FAT as well. I am going to try that, too, and see how the transfer between PC-Amiga works.

My next step is to put it inside the 1200 and get it rigged as a CF hard drive to replace my current 512MB card.
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: adolescent on July 31, 2006, 07:31:10 PM: @LoadWB

Why did you do that? Fat95 supports FAT32.
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: LoadWB on July 31, 2006, 08:25:32 PM: Either I did not RTFM, or I did not see that far into the project. Somehow (I don't recall doing it manually) the FileSystem in my CF0 mountlist was set to CrossDOSFileSystem, and I was operating under the assumption that I would keep that. I later switched back to fat95 when CrossDOS wouldn't recognize the large FAT cluster size.

Does fat95 support writing to FAT32, or just reading? And is it stable for doing so?
Title: Re: PCMCIA<-->CF limit?
Post by: LoadWB on July 31, 2006, 08:46:09 PM: Just answered this for myself. Fat95 does support writing FAT32, and it seems pretty stable so far. Pretty nice.