- FlashPath
FlashPath (FlashPath Floppy Disk Adapter) is a name for a series of devices produced by
SmartDisk that allow a variety ofmemory cards to be used in a3.5" Floppy disk drive. A milestone of 1 million adapters sold was reached in1999 . The initial version introduced in May 1998 allowedSmartMedia cards to be used with a floppy drive. Later,Memory Stick andSecure Digital /Multi Media Card versions were made as well. FlashPath adapters were sold not just by SmartDisk, but under a variety of brand names. The FlashPath logo would still be on other makers' devices.FlashPath is hardware compatible with all standard 3.5" High-Density Floppy disk drives, but is not a drop-in replacement for real floppy disks. A special software
device driver must be installed on the computer that is to access data via FlashPath. Thus, FlashPath is only usable with computers and operating systems for which such a driver exists and can be installed.SmartDisk was sued by PC Connector Solutions, LLC over alleged U.S.
patent infringement by SmartDisk's Smarty and FlashPath products in 2000. However, the court ruled in favor of SmartDisk; a final ruling was made in 2005.In a quote from a press release on the SmartDisk website,
Michael S. Battaglia , President and Chief Executive Officer of SmartDisk said, "We are pleased that the Court has agreed with SmartDisk that there was no infringement by our products. The Court of Appeals decision, upholding the District Court's Summary Judgment ruling of December 2003, finally resolves the legal issue between the parties."The FlashPath adapters have declined in popularity, but are still available from many retailers.
ee also
*
Memory cards
*Digital cameras
*Floppy disk External links
* [http://www.smartdisk.com/ SmartDisk official website homepage]
* [http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/recordDetail.asp?recordIDToShow=187&recordCategory=3 SmartDisk Press release about final court ruling]
* [http://www.dcresource.com/FlashPath/ Review of using a FlashPath adapter for SmartMedia] (October 1998/February 1999)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
