Datalight was a privately held software company 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 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 ...

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 s ...

''; July 16, 2007. Datalight's initial products were two DOS applications: the Datalight Small-C compiler and the Datalight C-Bug debugger. A full C compiler named Datalight C was available from Datalight between 1987 and 1993; Datalight C, developed by Walter Bright, evolved into Zortech C and is now Digital Mars C. Datalight C was also developed into an optimizing compiler called Datalight Optimum-C, which later became Zortech C++, the first native C++ compiler. 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 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 u ...

being built into PCMCIA cards. 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 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 Tuxera 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 File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to ''remove'' fine amounts of material from a workpiece ** Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to g ...

, 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 release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

; an older version of RWD supports Windows 2000. 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, VxWorks, Nucleus PLUS, and ThreadX. FlashFX Pro is available for Windows Mobile (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, which i ...

, 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 PC/104 (or PC104) is a family of embedded computer standardization, standards which define both Computer form factor, form factors and Bus (computing), computer buses by the PC/104 Consortium. Its name derives from the 104 pins on the interboard ...

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 specificat ...

-compatible file system aimed at consumer devices.
XCFiles
', p. 1. It allows embedded systems to support SDXC, the SD Card Association 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 Unsigned can refer to: * An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label ** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists ** Unsigned band web, online community * Similarly, the ...

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 oper ...

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;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 and connectivity package, is available as an optional add-on for ROM-DOS. The SDK comes with Borland C/C++ and

Turbo Assembler Turbo Assembler (sometimes shortened to the name of the executable, TASM) is an assembler for software development published by Borland in 1989. It runs on and produces code for 16- or 32-bit x86 MS-DOS and compatible on Microsoft Windows. It c ...

. 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 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 The HP 200LX Palmtop PC (F1060A, F1061A, F1216A), also known as project ''Felix'', is a personal digital assistant introduced by Hewlett-Packard in August 1994. It was often called a Palmtop PC, and it was notable that it was, with some mi ...

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 (Kent) ...

, 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 A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

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

Commands

The following list of

commands 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 * ...

is supported by ROM-DOS. * ATTRIB * BACKUP * BREAK *

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, Pak ...

* CD * CHDIR * CHKDSK *

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 given ...

* 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 * CTTY * DATE * DEL *

DELTREE In computing, DELTREE (short for ''delete tree'') is a command line command in some Microsoft operating systems, SpartaDOS X and FreeDOS that recursively deletes an entire subdirectory of files. Overview When IBM and Microsoft introduced PC DOS 1 ...

* DIR *

DISK2IMG Disk or disc may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape * Disk storage Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other uses * Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector space ...

* DISKCOMP * DISKCOPY * 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 li ...

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 availab ...

* ERASE *

EXE2BIN The command-line tool exe2bin is a post-compilation utility program available on MS-DOS and other operating systems. Overview Early compilers and linkers for the MS-DOS platform could not produce a COM file executable directly. Instead, the co ...

* EXIT *

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 Free ...

* FIND *

FOR For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physic ...

FORMAT Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informati ...

GOTO GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function c ...

* 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 d ...

* LFNFOR * LOADHIGH * MD *

MEM Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew mēm , Aramaic Mem , Syriac mīm ܡ, Arabic mīm and Phoenician mēm . Its sound value is . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek mu ...

* MINICMD.COM *

MKDIR The mkdir (make directory) command in the Unix, DOS, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory. It is also available in the EFI shell and in the PHP scripting language. In DOS, OS/2, ...

* MODE * 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 ...

* MSCDEX * NED * PATH * PAUSE * POWER *

PRINT Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template Print or printing may also refer to: Publishing * Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...

* PROMPT * PROTO * RD *

REM Rem or REM may refer to: Music * R.E.M., an American rock band * ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by Green * "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande Organizations * La République En Marche!, a French centrist political party * Reichserziehungsministerium, in Nazi G ...

* REMDISK * REMQUIT * REMSERV *

REN Ren or REN may refer to: Abbreviations * Orenburg Tsentralny Airport, IATA code REN, civil airport in Russia * Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), Portuguese company * Renanthera, abbreviated as Ren, orchid genus * Ringer equivalence number ( ...

RESTORE Restore may refer to: * ReStore - Retail building supply stores run by local Habitat for Humanity affiliates *"Restore", a single by Chris August Christopher August Megert (born March 20, 1982) is an American Contemporary Christian musician who ...

* RMDIR * RSZ * SERLINK * SERSERV * SET * SHARE *

SHIFT Shift may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Gaming * ''Shift'' (series), a 2008 online video game series by Armor Games * '' Need for Speed: Shift'', a 2009 racing video game ** '' Shift 2: Unleashed'', its 2011 sequel Literature * ''Sh ...

SMARTDRV SmartDrive (or SMARTDRV) is a disk caching program shipped with MS-DOS versions 4.01 through 6.22 and Windows 3.0 through Windows 3.11. It improves data transfer rates by storing frequently accessed data in random-access memory (RAM). Early v ...

* 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 r ...

* 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, t ...

* 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 Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

* 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 residin ...

* VOL * XCOPY

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