> Octavio Nogueira wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone have ANY clue on how to interface to a
> > PCMCIA flash disk?
I have done this on the 8051, but it would be harder on the PIC.

The PC Card Bus is well documented, the definitive docs are sold by
the PCMCIA, but its cheaper to get a prodcuct data sheet from your
supplier.  Its very much like the ISA bus, with a few changes for
hot-swapping, etc.  That is, there is an address bus, and data bus.
Read / Write timings are similar to ISA.  You can access it 8 or 16
bits wide, like ISA.

Just to do memory cycles on the bus is do-able in a micro, if you've
got enough pins.  The 8051 bus is a lot like the ISA bus, so its
easy to map it.  I'll bet one of the 17Cxx PICs in extended mode
would work well, too.  You don't have to deal with much of the card
personality data in an application that doesn't need compatibility
to generic PCs.

But the whole overhead of managing a FAT and directory for a DOS
compatible disk format is more difficult.  There is code around for
some of the bigger micros, I think.  But if you can do it, it makes
moving the data to a PC trivial.  (Plug into laptop, drag and drop).

Assuming the Laptop's PC Card software is working, which is another
story in another list.