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Date:      Wed, 09 Aug 2000 14:31:09 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
To:        chip@chocobo.cx, Alan Clegg <abc@firehouse.net>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Flash disk support over USB? 
Message-ID:  <200008092031.OAA50408@harmony.village.org>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 08 Aug 2000 17:08:31 MDT." <200008082308.RAA44002@harmony.village.org> 
References:  <200008082308.RAA44002@harmony.village.org>  <20000808152310.A34869@setzer.chocobo.cx> <14736.11357.195584.7158@trooper.velocet.net> <20000808120450.G38455@diskfarm.firehouse.net> 

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In message <200008082308.RAA44002@harmony.village.org> Warner Losh writes:
: In message <20000808152310.A34869@setzer.chocobo.cx> Chip Marshall writes:
: : Out of curiosity, why don't IBM microdrives work in these units? Does
: : that apply just to this specific type of CF reader, or to all USB CF
: : readers?
: 
: That's unknown at this time.  We know that IBM Microdrive works with
: the pccard code.

I'd also like to add that the microdrives have a much higher current
requirement than the CF spec guarantees, especially for spinup.  Maybe
the CF reader device was unable to deliver the power in such a way as
to damage the microdrive.  The microdrives do no exceed what the
pccard spec says is acceptible limits for the card's power.
Therefore, there might be an electrical basis for this particular card
reader not working.  Maybe they have a bad failure mode for an
overcurrent condition.  Without measurement tools and motivation to
look at this more closely, who can say.

The newer 1G microdrives use much less power on powerup, and should
work with a wider range of devices.  I think they exceed the specs
briefly on powerup, but their normal operation is well below the
specs.  The current family uses more power all around.  One thing that
the drives might force in FreeBSD is that they use far less power when
they are in suspend and standby mode than when in full operational
mode.  It would be desirable to to agressively move into standby and
quickly move to suspend mode.  The normal operating current is 350mA,
while the standby mode is 175mA and the suspend is like 90mA, IIRC.

Warner


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