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ATA-Support

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Great News for your Newt: Cheap ATA-Flash-Cards now work

Newton compatible memory cards are used to have two features:
rare and expensive.

 

Thanks to genius programmer Paul Guyot we can now use the cheap and commonly available ATA Flash RAM cards. The CompactFlash and Smart Media cards used in digital cameras are of these type, there is just an adapter needed, as shown on the picture at the left side.

 

ATA Support (Shareware)

Developer's web site: http://www.kallisys.com/newton/ata/

It works with all Newton OS 2.x systems, that's the MP120w/NOS2.0 and newer models (eMate included).

The new Release Candidate (RC4)

Back Up!

Before trying out this software, back up your Newton! The ATA-Support is not finished, there is the possibility of bugs which can cause data loss. Don't save any valuable data or programs on ATA-cards.

Here are screen shots of my Newton trying out the ATA-Support software:

The about boy tells you what this software is good for and gives some credits to beta testers.

I tried out ATA support with an 8MB card I got free with my digital camera (for taking pictures, I replaced it immediately with a 64MB card). This 8MB card was actually built by Hitachi, as can be seen in this card info window.

 

 

At first, the built-in "card" application showes some weird DOS partitions, I just ignored them and choose to partition the card for use with Newton.

With the full (registered) version, you can use up the whole memory. The free demo version allows only one 4MB partition or two 2MB partitions. For high capacity cards, it make sense to have more than one partition. Each partition can be mounted or unmounted individually, that way you avoid low heap conditions caused by too many activated programs.

 

 

The "card"-app dialog now shows the Newton partition mounted and ready to use. By tapping on the partition's name, the upper dialog box appears and allows to rename the card or change some parameters.

The flashing star on top of the Newton screen allows to unmount the card to prepare for its eject.

 

 

The card can now be used the same way you did with linear cards. As an example, the GoGo!-App is stored on the 8MB ATA-Card

Unlike older betas, speed is as least as good as it is with linear flash cards

Summary

The ATA Support Release Candidate version is almost finished. Compatibility and speed are very good. Some bugs still left - see docs for details.

We can expect a final version in commercial software quality real soon now.

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