Very Computer

Hi,

What's the general opinion of using USB flash devices for embedded
systems?  It has the advantage that it's cheap and off the shelf, which
suits our purposes.  It has kind of a tacky feel to it though.

Thanks,
Dave

Can you boot from such a device ?

-Michael

Sure, as long as you have a relatively modern BIOS.

Quote:> Hi,

> What's the general opinion of using USB flash devices for embedded
> systems?  It has the advantage that it's cheap and off the shelf, which
> suits our purposes.  It has kind of a tacky feel to it though.

> Thanks,
> Dave

There's a bunch of controllers available that enable you to use your
flash as an IDE drive. The nice thing about those controllers is that
they try to avoid writing the same spot again and again...
Since flash memory (depending on the type) can only be written 10k-100k
times, this is a very nice feature.

I don't know if USB flash devices implement this as well, you might want
to check this before starting your project...

Good Luck,
Freddy

Yes (for example using U-Boot).

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

--
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88   Web: www.denx.de
It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

Quote:> >Can you boot from such a device ?

> Yes (for example using U-Boot).

... only if the BIOS (or whatever code in the Boot ROM supports USB and
loads U-Boot (or whatever Linux loader) ) ...

I did not know that such boot-ROMs do exist.

-Michael