Flash memory (page 2)

The are two basic type of Flash cards: PC Cards (linear cards) and ATA Flash PC cards.

PC cards, also called linear cards:
PC cards that are typically connected directly to the PC bus and have direct access to the CPU (or CPU has direct access to the card). This mode of operation is called 'execute in place' (EIP) mode and requires high-speed random access during read operation. This type of application is typically needed for internal PC storage of the system data, the boot code, BIOS, fonts, etc.

ATA flash PC cards:
PC cards that are connected the CPU via the ATA interface similar to that used by other storage devices such as hard disk drives. The interface could, in fact, belong to the computer or to the PC card. CPU in this case treats ATA Flash PC card just as a solid-state equivalent of the hard drive and the card must be capable of addressing (rewriting) data using 512-Byte blocks - the way HDD does it.

The next figure shows how the PC cards of two different type communicate with the CPU. Linear card communicate directly with the CPU in XIP mode. ATA flash PC cards use DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) to communicate with the CPU.

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