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Letter of Volatility for Serial Devices

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Problem:
Where can I find official National Instruments confirmation that sensitive data passing through your serial products will be erased when the device loses power.

Solution:
Here is a list of the current information on our PCI, PCMCIA, USB, and Ethernet Serial products. The list below contains the types of memory in each device, the amount, and whether or not the information stored in that memory is retained. Volatile memory loses its contents when the device is powered off while nonvolatile memory retains its contents when the device is powered off.

PCI-232/485 and PXI-842x Serial

Storage Type	Size	Volatility	Access Restrictions
Main Memory UART FIFO	704 bits	volatile	none
Main Memory UART Control Registers	704 bits * num ports	volatile	none
PCI / ISA interface control & cache	~1kbit	volatile	none
EEPROM	256 bytes up to 16k	nonvolatile for configuration	Not write protected, but there is no mechanism provided for writing to the EEPROM through the user API. No user data, including communication data (serial data), is stored in the EEPROM.
No user data is stored in the device after power is removed.

PCMCIA Serial

Storage Type	Size	Volatility	Access Restrictions
Main Memory	352 bits + various UART control registers	volatile	none
Microprocessor cache	256 Bytes + various PCMCIA control registers	volatile	none
EEPROM	2kbits	nonvolatile for configuration	Write-protected on power-on. Write sequence is not documented to users, and no mechanism is provided for writing to the EEPROM through the user API. No user data, including communication data (serial data), is stored in the EEPROM.
No user data is stored in the device after power is removed.

PCI and PXI-843x Serial

Storage Type	Size	Volatility	Access Restrictions
Main Memory	2kbit (UART FIFOS) + various 2k UART control registers per port	volatile	none
PCI interface control & cache	~2kbit	volatile	none
EEPROM	varies - up to 64kbit	nonvolatile for configuration	Write protected by software - requires specific unlock sequence prior to writes, and no mechanism exists in the user's API for issuing this sequence. No user data, including communication data (serial data), is stored in the EEPROM.
No user data is stored in the device after power is removed.

USB Serial

Storage Type	Size	Volatility	Access Restrictions
Main Memory	~150kbit (Microcontroller memory, UART FIFOS, USB buffers, etc.)	volatile	none
ROM	64kbit	nonvolatile for boot loader	Read only, written at the factory.
EEPROM	up to 16kbit	nonvolatile for device configuration	Not write protected, however no user data, including communication data (serial data), is stored in the EEPROM.
No user data is stored in the device after power is removed.

ENET-232/x and ENET-485/x

Storage Type	Size	Volatility	Access Restrictions
Main Memory	16MBytes	volatile	none
Flash	2MBytes	nonvolatile for network and device configuration	Read only in normal operation. Network configuration can be written to when providing configuration settings.
The only user data stored in the device after power is removed is the network configuration, which can be manually reset by holding the reset button while the product is powered on.

Report Date: 06/18/2004
Last Updated: 03/19/2009
Document ID: 3AHD58V4

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