Datalight was a
privately held
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
software company specializing in power failsafe and high performance software for preserving data integrity in embedded systems. The company was founded in 1983 by Roy Sherrill, and is headquartered in
Bothell, Washington
Bothell () is a city in King and Snohomish counties in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of the Seattle metropolitan area, situated near the northeast end of Lake Washington. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 48,161 resident ...
. As of 2019 the company is a subsidiary of
Tuxera under the name of Tuxera US Inc.
Overview and history
Datalight was founded in 1983 by Roy Sherrill, a former
Boeing engineer.
[Ensuring that devices don't lose data]
" Tricia Duryee. '' The Seattle Times''; July 16, 2007. Datalight's initial products were two
DOS applications: the Datalight
Small-C compiler and the Datalight C-Bug debugger. A full
C compiler named Datalight C was available from Datalight between 1987 and 1993; Datalight C, developed by
Walter Bright, evolved into Zortech C and is now
Digital Mars C. Datalight C was also developed into an
optimizing compiler called Datalight Optimum-C, which later became Zortech C++, the first native
C++ compiler. In 1988, Datalight released C_thru_ROM, which provided embeddedable C functions and C start-up code, allowing programs developed on DOS to run as standalone applications without DOS dependence. In 1989, ROM-DOS 1.0 was released.
CardTrick was announced in 1993 to support the
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
being built into
PCMCIA cards. Card Trick later evolved into the embedded flash
memory manager FlashFX in 1995, moving Datalight into the raw flash memory market. The company grew rapidly in the late 1990s, receiving the WA Fast 50 award for the fastest growing companies in Washington state in 1997 and 1998.
The first of four patents to eventually be assigned to Datalight, "Method and apparatus for allocating storage in a flash memory", was awarded in 1999, followed up with an additional FlashFX-related patent, "Method and system for managing bad areas in flash memory", in 2001.
In 2003, Reliance, a reliable transactional embedded file system, was released; a related patent, "Reliable file system and method of providing the same", was awarded in 2007.
In 2009, Datalight released FlashFX Tera to support the growing size and complexity of
NAND flash arrays. That same year, Reliance Nitro was released, building upon Reliance and adding a tree-based architecture to improve performance for large files (>100 MB) and large numbers of files.
In 2013, another file system related patent, "Method and Apparatus for Fault-tolerant Memory Management" was issued.
In June 2019, the Finnish storage software and networking technology company
Tuxera signed an agreement to acquire Datalight.
Products
Reliance family
Reliance
First released in 2003, Reliance is an embedded file system
[Miller, Drew. ''Black Hat Physical Device Security: Exploiting Hardware and Software'']
p. 49
Syngress, 2004. . designed for applications with high reliability requirements.
Reliance Datasheet
', p. 1. Key features:
* Provides immunity to
file corruption
File or filing may refer to:
Mechanical tools and processes
* File (tool), a tool used to ''remove'' fine amounts of material from a workpiece
** Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing
** Nail file, a tool used to g ...
, including after unexpected system interruption (e.g., power loss), via atomic transaction points.
* Does not need to check disk integrity at start-up, meaning a shorter boot time.
* Dynamic file system configuration for performance optimization.
* Full data-exchangeability with
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, via the Reliance Windows Driver.
Reliance has a maximum volume size of 2 TB and a maximum file size of 4 GB.
Reliance Nitro
Released in 2009, Reliance Nitro is a file system developed from Reliance; it improved on the performance of original Reliance, primarily by adding a
tree-based directory architecture facilitating faster look-ups. The maximum volume size on Reliance Nitro is 32 TB; maximum file size is constrained only by free space.
Reliance Windows Driver
Datalight provides Windows drivers for both Reliance (Reliance Windows Driver; RWD) and Reliance Nitro (Reliance Nitro Windows Driver; RNWD); they provide exchangeability between Reliance-formatted media and Microsoft Windows. Both support
Windows Vista and
Windows XP; an older version of RWD supports
Windows 2000. The drivers are bundled with tools to format media and a utility to check file system integrity.
FlashFX
Introduced in 1995, FlashFX is a flash media manager which allows applications to access flash memory as if it were a hard drive,
abstracting the complexity of flash media. FlashFX operates either NAND or NOR flash and supports numerous flash devices. It can be used with any file system.
Versions:
* FlashFX Pro: Supports around 200 flash chip part numbers and flash arrays up to 2 GB.
[Flash Memory Drivers]
." Datalight. Retrieved 2010-08-13. Has pre-ported versions for
Windows CE,
VxWorks,
Nucleus PLUS
Nucleus RTOS is a real-time operating system (RTOS) produced by the Embedded Software Division of Mentor Graphics, a Siemens Business, supporting 32- and 64-bit embedded system platforms. The operating system (OS) is designed for real-time embedd ...
, and
ThreadX. FlashFX Pro is available for
Windows Mobile (FlashFX Tera is not).
* FlashFX Tera: Supports around 300 flash chip part numbers and flash arrays up to 2 TB. Has pre-ported versions for
Linux, Windows CE, and VxWorks. FlashFX Tera supports
MLC NAND flash, while FlashFX Pro does not; another improvement is Tera's error correction, which is more robust than Pro's.
Products using FlashFX include Arcom's
PC/104
PC/104 (or PC104) is a family of embedded computer standardization, standards which define both Computer form factor, form factors and Bus (computing), computer buses by the PC/104 Consortium. Its name derives from the 104 pins on the interboard ...
computer,
[PC/104 computer survives harsh environments]
" Warren Webb. ''EDN''; February 3, 2000. Curtis-Wright's Continuum Software Architecture, Teltronic's HTT-500 handset, and MCSI's PROMDISK disk emulator.
[PROMDISK](_blank)
MCSI.
XCFiles
XCFiles, released in June 2010, is an
exFAT-compatible file system aimed at consumer devices.
XCFiles
', p. 1. It allows embedded systems to support
SDXC, the
SD Card Association standard for extended capacity storage cards.
Marketed as "independent of the target platform", XCFiles is intended to be portable to any 32-bit platform which meets certain requirements (such as supporting
semaphores and
unsigned
Unsigned can refer to:
* An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label
** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists
** Unsigned band web, online community
* Similarly, the ...
64-bit
integers).
XCFiles is marketed in Japan as 'exFiles' by A.I. Corporation; it was released there in April 2009.
ROM-DOS
ROM-DOS (sometimes called Datalight DOS
[Datalight DOS Selected for Canon's New Line of Digital Still Cameras]
" '' Business Wire''; February 23, 1999.) was introduced in 1989 as an
MS-DOS compatible operating system designed for embedded systems. It includes backward compatibility build options allowing compatibility with specific versions of MS-DOS (e.g., DOS 5.01). ROM-DOS 7.1 added support for
FAT32 and
long file names. ROM-DOS includes a compact
TCP/IP stack;
[Jones, M. Tim. ''TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols for Embedded Systems'']
Appendix C: TCP/IP Protocol Stacks
. Charles River Media, 2002. . and SOCKETS, a
network socket API and connectivity package, is available as an optional add-on for ROM-DOS.
The
SDK comes with
Borland C/C++ and
Turbo Assembler.
System requirements:
*
Intel 80186
The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. The 801 ...
or compatible
* 10 KB of RAM
* 54–72 KB of ROM or disk space (depending on version)
Some devices which use or used ROM-DOS are the
Canon PowerShot Pro70,
Advantech's ADAM-4500, the Percon Falcon 325, several early
PDAs (
Tandy Zoomer,
IBM Simon,
HP OmniGo 100
The HP 200LX Palmtop PC (F1060A, F1061A, F1216A), also known as project ''Felix'', is a personal digital assistant introduced by Hewlett-Packard in August 1994. It was often called a Palmtop PC, and it was notable that it was, with some mi ...
/
120,
Nokia 9000/
9000i/
9110/
9110i),
Casio Algebra FX Series graphing calculators, MCSI's PROMDISK,
and Arcom's PC/104 computer.
Intel's Advanced RAID Configuration Utility (ARCU) is based on ROM-DOS, and, as of 2004, all Intel server board System Resource CDs included ROM-DOS.
Symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
's FMT 3000 came with a copy of ROM-DOS.
Commands
The following list of
commands
Command may refer to:
Computing
* Command (computing), a statement in a computer language
* COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS
* Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards
* ...
is supported by ROM-DOS.
*
ATTRIB
*
BACKUP
In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", w ...
*
BREAK
*
CALL
*
CD
*
CHDIR
*
CHKDSK
*
CHOICE
*
CLS
* COMM
*
COMMAND
*
COPY
*
CTTY
*
DATE
*
DEL
*
DELTREE
*
DIR
*
DISK2IMG
Disk or disc may refer to:
* Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape
* Disk storage
Music
* Disc (band), an American experimental music band
* ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby
Other uses
* Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector space ...
*
DISKCOMP
*
DISKCOPY
* DUMP
*
ECHO
*
EMM386
*
ERASE
*
EXE2BIN
The command-line tool exe2bin is a post-compilation utility program available on MS-DOS and other operating systems.
Overview
Early compilers and linkers for the MS-DOS platform could not produce a COM file executable directly. Instead, the co ...
*
EXIT
*
FDISK
*
FIND
*
FOR
For or FOR may refer to:
English language
*For, a preposition
*For, a complementizer
*For, a grammatical conjunction
Science and technology
* Fornax, a constellation
* for loop, a programming language statement
* Frame of reference, in physic ...
*
FORMAT
*
GOTO
GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function ca ...
*
HELP
*
IF
*
KEYB
*
LABEL
*
LFNFOR
*
LOADHIGH
*
MD
*
MEM
Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew mēm , Aramaic Mem , Syriac mīm ܡ, Arabic mīm and Phoenician mēm . Its sound value is .
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek mu ...
*
MINICMD.COM
*
MKDIR
The mkdir (make directory) command in the Unix, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory. It is also available in the EFI shell and in the PHP scripting language. In DOS, OS/2, ...
*
MODE
*
MORE
*
MOVE
*
MSCDEX
* NED
*
PATH
*
PAUSE
*
POWER
*
PRINT
Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template
Print or printing may also refer to:
Publishing
* Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...
*
PROMPT
* PROTO
*
RD
*
REM
Rem or REM may refer to:
Music
* R.E.M., an American rock band
* ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by Green
* "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande
Organizations
* La République En Marche!, a French centrist political party
* Reichserziehungsministerium, in Nazi G ...
*
REMDISK
*
REMQUIT
*
REMSERV
*
REN Ren or REN may refer to:
Abbreviations
* Orenburg Tsentralny Airport, IATA code REN, civil airport in Russia
* Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), Portuguese company
* Renanthera, abbreviated as Ren, orchid genus
* Ringer equivalence number ( ...
*
RESTORE Restore may refer to:
* ReStore - Retail building supply stores run by local Habitat for Humanity affiliates
*"Restore", a single by Chris August
Christopher August Megert (born March 20, 1982) is an American Contemporary Christian musician who ...
*
RMDIR
*
RSZ
*
SERLINK
*
SERSERV
*
SET
*
SHARE
*
SHIFT
Shift may refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media Gaming
* ''Shift'' (series), a 2008 online video game series by Armor Games
* '' Need for Speed: Shift'', a 2009 racing video game
** '' Shift 2: Unleashed'', its 2011 sequel
Literature
* ''Sh ...
*
SMARTDRV
SmartDrive (or SMARTDRV) is a disk caching program shipped with MS-DOS versions 4.01 through 6.22 and Windows 3.0 through Windows 3.11. It improves data transfer rates by storing frequently accessed data in random-access memory (RAM).
Early v ...
*
SORT
*
SUBST
*
SYS
*
TIME
* TRANSFER
*
TREE
*
TRUENAME
*
TYPE
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
*
UMBLINK
*
VER
*
VERIFY
*
VOL
Vol or Vols may refer to:
* Vol (command), a computer operating system command
* Vol (heraldry), a heraldic charge
* Volatility (finance)
* Volume (disambiguation)
* Volunteer (Irish republican)
* Nashville Vols, an American minor league baseball t ...
*
XCOPY
References
External links
*
{{Disk operating systems
2019 mergers and acquisitions
Computer storage companies
Defunct software companies of the United States
Software companies based in Washington (state)
Software companies established in 1983
Software companies disestablished in 2019
1983 establishments in Washington (state)
2019 disestablishments in Washington (state)
Software companies of the United States