From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 10684 invoked by alias); 13 Oct 2009 02:44:27 -0000 Received: (qmail 10618 invoked by uid 22791); 13 Oct 2009 02:44:25 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.4 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from virtual.bogons.net (HELO virtual.bogons.net) (193.178.223.136) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:42:59 +0000 Received: from jifvik.dyndns.org (jifvik.dyndns.org [85.158.45.40]) by virtual.bogons.net (8.10.2+Sun/8.11.2) with ESMTP id n9D2gu407704; Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:42:56 +0100 (BST) Received: from [172.31.1.126] (neelix.jifvik.org [172.31.1.126]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by jifvik.dyndns.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F37E3FEB; Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:42:56 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <4AD3E92E.5020301@jifvik.org> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:44:00 -0000 From: Jonathan Larmour User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.8-1.1.fc4 (X11/20060501) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=FCrgen_Lambrecht?= Cc: Ross Younger , Rutger Hofman , eCos developers , Deroo Stijn Subject: Re: NAND technical review References: <4ACB4B58.2040804@ecoscentric.com> <4ACC61F0.3020303@televic.com> In-Reply-To: <4ACC61F0.3020303@televic.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Mailing-List: contact ecos-devel-help@ecos.sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: ecos-devel-owner@ecos.sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2009-10/txt/msg00013.txt.bz2 Jürgen Lambrecht wrote: > Ross Younger wrote: >> - E's high-level driver interface makes it harder to add new functions >> later, necessitating a change to that API (H2 above). R's does not; the >> requisite logic would only need to be added to the ANC. It is not thought >> that more than a handful such changes will ever be required, and it >> may be >> possible to maintain backwards compatibility. (As a case in point, >> support >> for hardware ECC is currently work-in-progress within eCosCentric, and >> does >> require such a change, but now is not the right time to discuss that.) > > Therefore we prefer R's model. > > Is it possible that R's model follows better the "general" structure of > drivers in eCos? > I mean: (I follow our CVS, could maybe differ from the final commit of > Rutger to eCos) > 1. with the low-level chip-specific code in /devs > (devs/flash/arm/at91/[board] and devs/flash/arm/at91/nfc, and > devs/flash/micron/nand) > 2. with the "middleware" in /io (io/flash_nand/current/src and there > /anc, /chip, /controller) > 3. with the high-level code in /fs I don't see E's model as being much different in that perspective. There is stuff in devs/flash, io/nand and (presumably) fs as well. The difference is more the separation out of the controller functionality into a different layer. > Is it correct that R's abstraction makes it possible to add partitioning > easily? > (because that is an interesting feature of E's implementation) As Rutger said, it could be done - there's nothing in his design which presents it. It's not there now though, so unless someone's working on it it's probably not something to consider in the decision process. Especially since it would be a big user API change. > We also prefer R's model of course because we started with R's model and > use it now. You haven't done any profiling by any luck have you? Or code size analysis? Although I haven't got into the detail of R's version yet (since I was starting with dissecting E's), both the footprint and the cumulative function call and indirection time overhead are concerns of mine. >> (b) Availability of drivers [snip] >> - One chip: the ST Micro 0xG chip (large page, x8 and x16 present but >> presumably only tested on the x8 chip on the BlackFin board?) >> > > - Two: also the Micron MT29F2G08AACWP-ET:D 256MB 3V3 NAND FLASH (2kB > page size, x8) > Because if this chip, Rutger adapted the hardware ECC controller code, > because our chip uses more bits (for details, ask Stijn or Rutger). I'd be interested in what the issue was. From admittedly a quick look I can't find anything about this in the code. >> (d) Degree of testing [snip] > We have it very well tested, amongst others > - an automatic (continual) nand-flash test in a clima chamber > - stress tests: putting it full over and over again via FTP (both with > af few big and many small files) and check the heap remaining: > * Put 25 files with a filesize of 10.000.000 bytes on the filesystem > * Put 2500 files with a filesize of 100.000 bytes on the filesystem > * Put 7000 files with a filesize of 10.000 bytes on the filesystem > Conclusion: storing smaller files needs more heap, but we still have > plenty left with our 16MB > * Write a bundle of files over and over again on the filesystem. We put > everytime 1000 files of 100.000 bytes filesize on the flash drive. > - used in the final mp3-player application That's extremely useful to know, thanks! But a couple of further questions on this: Did any bad blocks show up at any point? Were you using a bad block table? Presumably there were factory-marked bad blocks on some? Thanks, Jifl -- --["No sense being pessimistic, it wouldn't work anyway"]-- Opinions==mine