Friday, May 4, 2012

Microsoft In Patent Deal With Avionics Firm

Redmond-based Microsoft reported Thursday that it has licensed its Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) technology to a developer of avionics systems, Aspen Avionics. Financial details of the licensing were not disclosed, however, Microsoft said the deal will give Aspen "broad access" to its file system used for large audiovisual media and data transfer. exFAT is the latest version of the venerable FAT file system, which Microsoft originally developed in the early days of the PC for disk drives. Aspen Avionics develops flight display systems for general aviation aircraft. Microsoft's modern operating systems use NTFS rather than the legacy FAT file system.