Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
17 years ago

Interfacing Compact Flash

Hi folks, I am Pradeep, i am a newbi in FPGA and CPLD designs. i wanted to know how can we interface compact flash with either an FPGA or a CPLD. can you suggest any relevant websites or material...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
17 years ago

--- Quote Start ---

If you want to use a file system, such as FAT, so that you can read back the data on a PC, you will need a CPU.

--- Quote End ---

It's the regular way, but not absolutely required, in my opinion. You can also think of a low-level storage, that is compatible with FAT. Of course, some restrictions apply. The most basic method would assign the full media storage to a single continuous file. FAT management on the CPLD side reduces to determining the file's relative sector 0 address in this case.

Regarding CF specific handling, usually true IDE mode is utilized, which is identical to accessing an ATA/IDE hard disk. t13.org has the respective documents. There have been also good OEM CF manuals from Sandisk, describing the protocol in detail.