CF cards for large fs store instead of DoC?

I realize that DoC is more convenient, but with compact

flash cards in the 30$ range for 64Mb - it's hard to resist!

Most (if not all) CF cards will power up in ATA mode and

provide a very fast 16bit data inteface - all you need is

a CF socket to IDE 40 pin converter and a pulldown on ~oe

- see the tapr board as a reference design - it's around ~60$US

but could be fab'ed in qty for <$15. Note that the CF-ATA

mode provides only an ATA-66 interface. CF cards should be

5 V rather than 3.3V (unless you add a regulator) and generally

steal power from a spare floppy power connector.

Putting Lilo and or ECOS on the Linuxbios chip and a

kernel image, root and usr files system on CF would

make for very quick booting, cheap cluster nodes ;)

Alternately - Linuxbios could boot the CF directly as it

behaves as a HD in ATA mode.

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