How FlashFX and FlashFX Pro Work
FlashFX® and FlashFX Pro® work by allowing an operating system or application to use flash memory as if it were a small-sector read/write disk similar to a PC floppy or hard disk drive. Both provide a generic block device driver interface that can be used with virtually any file system. Neither product includes a file system of its own.
Once loaded into the target system, FlashFX or FlashFX Pro is typically referred to as a "flash disk" because it makes the flash array appear as normal disk storage to the operating system and applications. Because a Resident Flash Array (RFA) is usually soldered into the target system and is non-removable, the flash disk appears to the operating system as a hard disk.
FlashFX Pro Supports Multithreaded Operations
Read operations may interrupt both write and erase operations. This is particularly true for multimedia applications, such as streaming video, because writes and erases (in particular) may take a substantial amount of time on most flash parts. This adversely affects streaming video applications that must deliver a minimal frame-rate for acceptable performance. FlashFX Pro allows one write/erase operation to be executed at any given time, and any number of read operations.
FlashFX and FlashFX Pro Interface and Components
The high-level block diagram below shows the different components of FlashFX and FlashFX Pro and their relationships. The operating system and hardware (flash array) are shown in their respective relationships to the FlashFX or FlashFX Pro drivers.
Additional documents providing more technical details, including complete Developer Guides can be found in Resources.
