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Datalight was a
privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...
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 its headquarters is in Bothell, Washington. As of 2019, the company was 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, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
engineer.Ensuring that devices don't lose data
" Tricia Duryee. ''
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...
''; July 16, 2007.
Datalight's initial products were two DOS applications: Datalight Small-C compiler and 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 embeddable 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 Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, 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 t ...
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 Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, 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 t ...
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, 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 Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
, 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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
-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, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...
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 successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
; an older version of RWD supports
Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...
. 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 VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, Deterministic system, ...
, Nucleus PLUS, and ThreadX. FlashFX Pro is available for
Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...
(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 ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, 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-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 64-bit
integers An integer is the number zero (0), a positive natural number (1, 2, 3, ...), or the negation of a positive natural number (−1, −2, −3, ...). The negations or additive inverses of the positive natural numbers are referred to as negative in ...
). 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 op ...
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 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
API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...
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 The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external Bus (computing)#Address bus, data bus multiplexed with a 20 ...
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 cellular phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) designed by International Business Machines (IBM), released in 1994. Built on an x86 processor, the IBM Simon features a ...
, HP OmniGo 100/ 120, 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 (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
's FMT 3000 came with a copy of ROM-DOS.


Commands

The following list of commands is supported by ROM-DOS. * ATTRIB *
BACKUP In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "wikt:back ...
* BREAK * CALL * 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 Motivation, motivators and Choice modelling, models. Freedom of choice is generally cherished, whereas a severely limited or arti ...
* CLS * COMM *
COMMAND Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * command (Unix), a Unix command * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on A ...
* COPY * CTTY * DATE * DEL * DELTREE * DIR * DISK2IMG * DISKCOMP * DISKCOPY * DUMP * ECHO * EMM386 * ERASE * EXE2BIN * EXIT * FDISK * FIND * FOR * FORMAT * GOTO *
HELP Help may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Help (2010 film), ''Help'' (2010 film), a Bollywood horror film * Help (2021 theatrical film), ''Help'' (2021 theatrical film), a British psychological thriller film * Help (2021 TV ...
* 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. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...
* LFNFOR * LOADHIGH * MD * MEM * MINICMD.COM *
MKDIR (make directory) command (computing), command in the Unix, DOS, Digital Research, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory (file systems), directory. It is also available in the Unified ...
* MODE * MORE * MOVE * MSCDEX * NED * PATH * PAUSE * POWER * 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 ...
* RSZ * SERLINK * SERSERV *
SET Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
* SHARE * SHIFT * SMARTDRV * SORT * SUBST * SYS *
TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
* 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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
* 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 residi ...
* 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)