In a message dated 7/15/99 10:46:49 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
btrembl@GEL.ULAVAL.CA writes:

<< Hi,
         The idea to use a flash card or EEPROM is good for (let say) a new
 device. But the problem is when you want use your stored data. To my
 knowledge, only laptop can read flash card, and I don't know any PC that
 can read EEPROM directly. So, a floppy is a good idea too.
  >>
Hi All,
The above statement is not really true.  The Smartmedia cards are gaining
quite a following, they are available up to 32MB (at present), They are more
pricey but for the same storage as a floppy (about 2mb) they are under $10
and they are only about 1.25 inches square.  They are easy to read and there
are several options for reading with a PC.  One of these options is an $80.00
thing that allows you to plug in the smart media card into a device that
looks like a floppy and then you stick it into any 1.4mb floppy drive and
read it.

they would certainly take alot of overhead out of the project (controllers,
software etc.)  The hardest thing about smartmedia cards (or any other flash
memory solution) is the ware leveling required to ensure that the beginning
of the device does not wear out before the end. (Fat tables can get written
to quite often, exceeding the write cycle lifetime of the flash very quickly)

Best regards
Dave Duley