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DS Flash Equipment > Maximum storage on M3 DS Simply?

#123474 - Yata^Duck - Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:58 am

Ive been reading up on these guys and they seem to be what im after, but i was just wondering what the maximum storage space it can hold is? The product description states its using FAT file system, but not what type of FAT 16/32? Obviously there is a big difference.

Furthermore, i am wondering if it is viable for the following needs:
mp3's
videos
homebrew games (particulary Doom3DS and Duke3DS)
IRC

Thanks in advance.

Yata.

[Renamed so as not to invite confusion with Datel products -- MOD]

#123476 - Diddl - Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:48 pm

I use a DS M3 simply with a 2GB micro SD card and works fine. I 'm not sure if there exists bigger sizes on TF card (4GB)?

#123479 - tepples - Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:45 pm

There are problems with cards larger than 2 GB:
  1. The SD protocol has enough bits in the read/write address to scale up to 2 GB. The 4 GB cards use a different protocol called SDHC. SDHC is not implemented in the firmware of all devices that use SD cards.
  2. FAT16 with 32 KB sectors tops out at 2 GB. FAT16 as of Windows NT supports 64 KB sectors, but the original spec did not; it works on some versions of Windows and not others, and it may not be implemented correctly in all flash card firmware.

But at least the back of the box of the R4 that I got yesterday states "Uses MicroSD card, FAT16 or 32".
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#123487 - Yata^Duck - Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:29 pm

Thanks for the help guys.

What about my homebrew needs i listed, how will they run?

#123528 - tepples - Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:45 pm

Homebrew in .nds format that doesn't need to read or write other files on the memory card runs fine on R4. Homebrew in .nds format that uses DLDI runs fine on R4. M3 DS Simply is a rebadged R4.
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#123535 - Yata^Duck - Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:21 pm

Thanks again for your help.

Yata

#123554 - Firon - Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:33 am

tepples wrote:
There are problems with cards larger than 2 GB: [list=1][*]The SD protocol has enough bits in the read/write address to scale up to 2 GB. The 4 GB cards use a different protocol called SDHC. SDHC is not implemented in the firmware of all devices that use SD cards.


There are non-SDHC 4GB cards. They are non-standard though, much like 4GB FAT16 partitions. I know the Slot-2 M3 supports it, but I've got no idea if the Simply will.

#123634 - Gunnex - Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:50 pm

It says on the site that it supports up to 4GB, so they probably added it into the firmware.

#123725 - josath - Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:50 pm

wasn't SD designed after CF? it seems odd that they would put the storage limit in, seeing as how CF came like 5 years before SD, and CF has a max size limit of 137GB. it's just something that's always bugged me...why is the older, larger, format, more technically capable?

#123736 - tepples - Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:16 pm

CompactFlash is merely parallel ATA in a different form factor and inherits its addressing scheme (28-bit sector number, 4096 bits per sector). MultiMediaCard and its derivative Secure Digital were also designed to be used in physically smaller and cheaper devices than CF, namely pocket digital audio players and cameras. The rationale was that larger and more expensive devices would use CF. At the time, 32 MB was a lot of memory. Nobody foresaw the faster-than-Moore improvement in flash memory density and the deflationary price wars that ensued.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.