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This is a 448MB NOR-gate "ATA Transflash" card. Full size PCMCIA interface.

NOR flash isn't used much, as NAND flash offers much better density. NOR's advantage was that it mapped the entire address space directly, so random reads were much faster than the NAND flash of the day. Disadvantages were larger size and slower erase times. Since flash storage became primarily a store-only medium, NOR has kind of faded over the years, although it's still a technology that could be used.

Now it's so fast and dense that NOR isn't really used at all.

I bought this on eBay probably late 2002 for around $90. A 256MB CF card would have set you back about $110 at the time, and I had one of those as well. Ended up selling the CF card to a friend for about 1/4 of the original purchase price. Like the PCMCIA drive I posted earlier, I have no way to read this so it's secrets shall remain until the charge on the flash chips degrades into nothing.

Raise a glass to the warez this thing transported in it's day.

This is a 448MB NOR-gate "ATA Transflash" card. Full size PCMCIA interface. NOR flash isn't used much, as NAND flash offers much better density. NOR's advantage was that it mapped the entire address space directly, so random reads were much faster than the NAND flash of the day. Disadvantages were larger size and slower erase times. Since flash storage became primarily a store-only medium, NOR has kind of faded over the years, although it's still a technology that could be used. Now it's so fast and dense that NOR isn't really used at all. I bought this on eBay probably late 2002 for around $90. A 256MB CF card would have set you back about $110 at the time, and I had one of those as well. Ended up selling the CF card to a friend for about 1/4 of the original purchase price. Like the PCMCIA drive I posted earlier, I have no way to read this so it's secrets shall remain until the charge on the flash chips degrades into nothing. Raise a glass to the warez this thing transported in it's day.

(post is archived)

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It was probably just roms and things from funet.fi's FTP archives.

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That's probably before my time

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funet used to host a giant collection of software for older machines, as well as some unusual and hard-to-find information about them. I believe it's no longer online, but it's been archived somewhere and is still available.