Datalight was a privately held

software company A software company is a company whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry. Types There are a number of different types of soft ...

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. As of 2019 the company is a subsidiary of

Tuxera Tuxera Inc. is a Finnish software company that develops and sells file systems software. Its most popular products are Tuxera NTFS and Tuxera exFAT, both available on a number of platforms including Linux, Android (operating system), Android, QNX ...

under the name of Tuxera US Inc.

Overview and history

Datalight was founded in 1983 by Roy Sherrill, a former

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

engineer.Ensuring that devices don't lose data
" Tricia Duryee. ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...

''; July 16, 2007. Datalight's initial products were two

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

applications: the Datalight

Small-C Small-C is both a subset of the C programming language, suitable for resource-limited microcomputers and embedded systems, and an implementation of that subset. Originally valuable as an early compiler for microcomputer systems available during ...

compiler and the Datalight C-Bug debugger. A full

C compiler This page is intended to list all current compilers, compiler generators, interpreters, translators, tool foundations, assemblers, automatable command line interfaces ( shells), etc. Ada Compilers ALGOL 60 compilers ALGOL 68 compilers cf. ...

named Datalight C was available from Datalight between 1987 and 1993; Datalight C, developed by

Walter Bright Walter G. Bright is an American computer programmer who created the D programming language, the Zortech C++ compiler, and the ''Empire'' computer game. Early life and education Bright is the son of the United States Air Force pilot Charles D. ...

, evolved into Zortech C and is now Digital Mars C. Datalight C was also developed into an

optimizing compiler In computing, an optimizing compiler is a compiler that tries to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. Common requirements are to minimize a program's execution time, memory footprint, storage size, and power cons ...

called Datalight Optimum-C, which later became Zortech C++, the first native

C++ compiler This page is intended to list all current compilers, compiler generators, interpreters, translators, tool foundations, assemblers, automatable command line interfaces ( shells), etc. Ada Compilers ALGOL 60 compilers ALGOL 68 compilers cf. ...

. 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 being built into

PCMCIA card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and develop ...

s. 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 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 use ...

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

signed an agreement to acquire Datalight.

Products

Reliance family

Reliance

First released in 2003, Reliance is an embedded file systemMiller, 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, 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, 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 In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

-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 Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

; an older version of RWD supports

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

. 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 Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

VxWorks VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, determi ...

, Nucleus PLUS, and ThreadX. FlashFX Pro is available for

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

(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 Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, 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 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
MCSI.

XCFiles

XCFiles, released in June 2010, is an

exFAT exFAT (Extensible File Allocation Table) is a file system introduced by Microsoft in 2006 and optimized for flash memory such as USB flash drives and SD cards. exFAT was proprietary until 28 August 2019, when Microsoft published its specificati ...

-compatible file system aimed at consumer devices.
XCFiles
', p. 1. It allows embedded systems to support

SDXC Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

, the

SD Card Association The SD Association (SDA) is an American nonprofit organization that sets standards for the SD memory card format. SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita) and Toshiba formed the SD Association in January 2000. In 2010, the SDA had approximately 1,000 mem ...

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 64-bit

integers An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...

). 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 DOSDatalight DOS Selected for Canon's New Line of Digital Still Cameras
" ''

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...

''; February 23, 1999.) was introduced in 1989 as an

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

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 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. It is often supported for compatibility reasons by ...

and long file names. ROM-DOS includes a compact

TCP/IP stack The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

;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 A network socket is a software structure within a network node of a computer network that serves as an endpoint for sending and receiving data across the network. The structure and properties of a socket are defined by an application programmin ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

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 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 The PowerShot products is a line of consumer and prosumer grade digital cameras, launched by Canon in 1996. () In 1996 a model of PowerShot was introduced to the market, The Powershot 600. The production of The PowerShort came shortly after Can ...

Pro70, Advantech's ADAM-4500, the Percon Falcon 325, several early PDAs ( Tandy Zoomer,

IBM Simon The IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) is a handheld, touchscreen PDA designed by International Business Machines (IBM), and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. Although the term "smartphone" was not coined until 199 ...

, HP OmniGo 100/

120 120 may refer to: *120 (number), the number * AD 120, a year in the 2nd century AD *120 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *120 film, a film format for still photography * ''120'' (film), a 2008 film * 120 (MBTA bus) * 120 (New Jersey bus) * 120 (Ken ...

, 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's FMT 3000 came with a copy of ROM-DOS.

Commands

The following list of commands is supported by ROM-DOS. * ATTRIB * BACKUP *

BREAK Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning res ...

CALL Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...

* CD * CHDIR *

CHKDSK In computing, CHKDSK (short for "check disk") is a system tool and command in DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and related operating systems. It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and ...

CHOICE A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a give ...

* CLS * COMM *

COMMAND 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 * ...

COPY Copy may refer to: *Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact **Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing **File copying **Photocopying, a pr ...

* CTTY *

DATE Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner ** Group dating *Play date, a ...

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

* DELTREE * DIR * DISK2IMG *

DISKCOMP In computing, diskcomp is a command used for comparing the complete contents of a floppy disk to another one. Overview The command is used on DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, SISNE plus, IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It is ...

DISKCOPY In computing, diskcopy is a command used on a number of operating systems for copying the complete contents of a diskette to another diskette. Implementations The command is available in MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, M ...

* DUMP *

ECHO In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

EMM386 EMM386 is the expanded memory manager of Microsoft's MS-DOS, IBM's PC DOS, Digital Research's DR-DOS, and Datalight's ROM-DOS which is used to create expanded memory using extended memory on Intel 80386 CPUs. There also is an EMM386.EXE availa ...

ERASE Erase may refer to: *Data erasure, a method of software-based overwriting that completely destroys all electronic data *Data remanence, the residual representation of data that has been, in some way, nominally erased or removed * ''Erase'' (album ...

* EXE2BIN *

EXIT Exit(s) may refer to: Architecture and engineering * Door * Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure * Emergency exit * Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane * Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange ...

FDISK In computing, the fdisk command-line utility provides disk-partitioning functions, preparatory to defining file systems. fdisk features in the DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, and Microsoft Windows operating systems, and in certain ports of FreeBS ...

FIND Find, FIND or Finding may refer to: Computing * find (Unix), a command on UNIX platforms * find (Windows), a command on DOS/Windows platforms Books * ''The Find'' (2010), by Kathy Page * ''The Find'' (2014), by William Hope Hodgson Film and t ...

* FOR * FORMAT * GOTO * HELP * IF * KEYB *

LABEL A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...

* LFNFOR *

LOADHIGH In computing, (abbreviated ) is an internal DOS command in COMMAND.COM that is used to load a program into the upper memory area (UMA) instead of conventional memory. The command was introduced with MS-DOS 5.0 / PC DOS 5.0 in 1991, copyin ...

* MD * MEM * MINICMD.COM * MKDIR *

MODE Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...

* MORE *

MOVE Move may refer to: People * Daniil Move (born 1985), a Russian auto racing driver Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move Go ...

MSCDEX MSCDEX or Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions is a software program produced by Microsoft and included with MS-DOS 6.x and certain versions of Windows to provide CD-ROM support. Earlier versions of MSCDEX since 1986 were installable add-ons for M ...

* NED *

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desire p ...

* PAUSE *

POWER Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

* PRINT * PROMPT * PROTO * RD * REM * REMDISK * REMQUIT * REMSERV * REN * RESTORE *

RMDIR In computing, rmdir (or rd) is a command which will remove an empty directory on various operating systems. Implementations The command is available in Unix (e.g. macOS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX), Unix-like (e.g. FreeBSD, Linux), DOS, Digital Resear ...

* RSZ * SERLINK * SERSERV * SET * SHARE * SHIFT * SMARTDRV * SORT *

SUBST In computing, SUBST is a command on the DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS operating systems used for substituting paths on physical and logical drives as virtual drives. Overview In MS-DOS, the SUBST command was added with the rel ...

* SYS *

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

* TRANSFER *

TREE In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

* TRUENAME * TYPE * UMBLINK * VER *

VERIFY CONFIG.SYS is the primary configuration file for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. It is a special ASCII text file that contains user-accessible setup or configuration directives evaluated by the operating system's DOS BIOS (typically residing ...

* VOL *

XCOPY In computing, XCOPY is a command used on IBM PC DOS, MS-DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, FreeDOS, ReactOS, and related operating systems for copying multiple files or entire directory trees from one directory to another and for copying files a ...

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