uALFAT FAQ
uALFAT Frequently Asked Questions (updated 06/07/2006 )
Q: What is uALFAT? What do I need to add file system to my product.
A: uALFAT is a chipset that knows FAT file system. Basically, you send commands to uALFAT through UART, SPI or I2C and uALFAT will communicate with your media and read/write files. You will need uALFAT, SD card, 10Mhz crystal and a couple resistors/capacitors.
Q: ALFAT, uALFAT, uALFAT-SD...etc. what is the difference?
A: ALFAT is our first product that was introduced in year 1999. uALFAT is the enhanced version and what you should use in your new designs. Now, with every chip we make, we provide one or more circuit boards that uses that chip. We name the the boards with the same name as the chip but we add few letters at the end. For example, uALFAT-SD is a board that is based on uALFAT chip and has SD card connector. Similar, uALFAT-USB is our board with USB connector.
Q: USBwiz or uALFAT?
A: Depending on your application. Both chips can read/write files on SD cards and USB memory but USBwiz can read/write files on multiple drives simultaneously. USBwiz uses ISP1160 with 2 USB ports. uALFAT uses MAX3421 with 1 USB port. Also, USBwiz supports raw USB commands, USB printers, USB cell phones, USB mice, USB keyboards and USB joystick. USBwiz can update it firmware from SD, USB memory or through the user interface. On the other hand, uALFAT can update its firmware from SD cards or user interface only.
Q: Isn't it cheaper or better to use FAT file system source code in my project?
A: It depends on your project. If you are looking into making few hundreds of your product then it cost less to use uALFAT. Also, time-to-market is almost nothing when comparing adding uALFAT with integrating source codes.
Q: FAT12, FAT16 and FAT132...what the difference? Many products support FAT16 only. Is this enough?
A: Yes and no! With FAT 16 you can almost support any drive 64M to 2GB but we have 2 problems here. The first one that windows will format your 1GB drive as FAT32 unless you tell it to use FAT16. This is more work for your customer and it is degrading for your product. The second problem is that what is your customer use a media that is larger than 2GB? 2GB sound like a lot but this will not be the case in a year or two. Similar is FAT12, you can't guarantee that your customer is not going to try to use 32MB media!
Q: Why you say FAT cost a lot of money? There are many free FAT source codes out there and Microsoft provide a the specs for free!
A: FAT file system is simple in theory but when it comes to professional application you need a reliable FAT system. A simple bug in the FAT codes and every file on the media can be corrupted. Also, most of the codes out there are GPL and designed by hobbyists. This means you can't use it in a commercial project.
Q: Are you saying that you guarantee your FAT sources are bug free?
A: No one can guarantee bug free source codes but we can tell you that we have been using our codes since year 1999 and we have sold thousands of our chips around the world.
Q: I want to use uALFAT in a battery powered application. What is the power consumption?
A: uALFAT runs in 3 modes. In the full power mode, uALFAT draws about 35mA. When lower power is needed, uALFAT can fully run at 10mA. Most applications do not need to keep reading/writing data continuously. For that, you can put uALFAT in hibernate mode where it draws few micro amps. Keep in mind that you can completely shut off the power to uALFAT when your system is not in need for data access.
Q: Should I use SPI, I2C or UART?
A: Depends! If you have the the option of using any, we would recommend UART as it is the easiest. SPI also works as good. On the other hand, I2C is slower but in some cases this would be your only choice.
Q: What microcontroller should I use to communicate with uALFAT?
A: ANY! You can use PIC, AVR, Motorolla, ARM and even basic stamp! You can simply use whatever you already use and just drop in uALFAT chip or connect one of our boards.
Q: When will USB memory be supported?
A: The design and firmware is finished and tested. We are planning on shipping uALFAT-USB in July.
Q: uALFAT would have been perfect if it had this feature. Can you add it?
A: Of course we can. uALFAT commands are all based on customer suggestions and we would love to hear what you need. We can add new command to uALFAT or we can entirely write a special firmware for you.
Q: What about the boards? Can you customize them?
A: Yes we can. Just drop us a line and we will show you how your time-to-market can be reduced dramatically.
Q: Firmware! What is that?
A: All our chips contain 2 pieces of code. One is the boot loader that is always the same. The boot loader allows you to load the new firmware. Firmware is like a software on your PC. You can load/unload it and upgrade it. Upgrades are always free that usually contain new features and fixes to any discover issues. Also, if we provide you with special firmware you can load it very easily.
Q: When new update is available, do I have to send you the chips for update? Do I have to do anything complex to update the firmware?
A: No not at all! uALFAT can update itself automatically. You only need to download the new firmware from the website and save it on your media then place the media in your product. Once file is there, you can just send LOK (Load OK) command and uALFAT will update itself. The update time is less than 5 seconds.
Q: What would stop my from buying blank chips and use one of your chips to copy them freely?
A: First of all, this is illegal! Second, our chips load a highly encrypted file that is encrypted twice. Tampering with the firmware files may damage the chip permanently.
Q: I have just seen a new company that just copied your product. Why should I buy yours?
A: Reliability and ease of use. We provide you with around-the-clock support and we provide you with source codes and design specs to do everything with almost no effort. Also, we run 32-bit processor crunching about 63 million instructions per second. This gives you over 60KB/S read/write speed. We are also continuously adding new features for free. In short, customers have been relying on our products for over 6 years. We were the first to bring you such technology and we are still the only ones on this planet to provide USB memory support!
Q: Where is your phone number? I have a question!
A: To keep our prices low, we provide phone support only if necessary. If you have any question, please use our forum and if that didn't help then we will be more than happy to call you and discuss any problems you may have.
www.ghielectronics.com/groups