Atarimax "Maxflash" Flash MultiCarts
Preliminary Documentation, 07/10/2003
©2003 Steven J Tucker
Chapter 1: Hardware
Physical Description
Professionally manufactured PCB made in the USA.
Brand new black ABS injection molded cartridge casing.
Full color custom die cut labels.
Flash devices fully socketed for replacement in case of damage or device failure.
No batteries or other high-wear components.
Capacity
1Mbit flash-memory device arranged as 16 banks of 8KB. (1Mb Cartridge)
8Mbit of flash-memory arranged as 128 banks of 8KB. (8Mb Cartridge)
Maximum capacity 1GB (per device), typically 5% overhead for file system. Footprints TBD. (MMC/CF Cartridge)
Reprogramming
In system reprogramming using custom flash-programming software included in toolkit.
In system programming time of 1Mb flash cartridge is 1-2 minutes, depending on OS selection.
Minimum flash-memory lifetime of 100,000 program/erase cycles.
Minimum data pattern retention time in absence of power, 30 years.
GNU licensed software kit to encourage free distribution of cartridge images and development of new cartridge based software.