Re: [ECOS] FAT32 over NAND

[Jonathan Larmour <jifl@eCosCentric.com>]

Andrew Lunn wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 08:41:35PM +0530, Himanshu Patel wrote:
>> Okay...Thanks...
>>
>> YAFFS2 is not a possible option...As device should be able to access from PC
>> running Windows also through mass storage interface...
>>
>> Can we make use of NFTL (NAND flash translation layer) which Linux is
>> providing? 
> 
> Depends on what license you want to use. If you are happy that your
> entire system, is GPL, yes. However most people want to keep there
> application closed, in which case you cannot use Linux kernel code.

There are also patent issues. FTLs are covered by patents by M-Systems,
Inc. in the US and Europe at least. You cannot develop or sell a product
containing an FTL in those markets without getting a licence from M-Systems
(unless it's used in a PCMCIA device, for which M-Systems grants a
no-royalty licence).

See the bottomr of http://sources.redhat.com/jffs2/jffs2-html/node1.html

Because of this, I doubt eCos will ever have an FTL.

Jifl
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