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Re: Synth NAND Flash
- From: Rutger Hofman <rutger at cs dot vu dot nl>
- To: Simon Kallweit <simon dot kallweit at intefo dot ch>
- Cc: "ecos-devel at ecos dot sourceware dot org" <ecos-devel at ecos dot sourceware dot org>
- Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 14:17:03 +0200
- Subject: Re: Synth NAND Flash
- References: <4A0855FB.1030908@intefo.ch>
Simon Kallweit wrote:
Hi there
I merged the NAND code from Rutger into my repo and tried to figure out
how to write synthetic target support, which in my opinion would be a
great addition so we can test future filesystems (UFFS) without a
target, do wear-leveling analysis and stuff like that.
First, I noticed a few things I would like to clear up in front.
Currently, the NAND subsystem sits in io/flash_nand which I think is
fine. But the devices sit under devs/flash, which is the same location
as for NOR flash. I think we should rename this to devs/flash_nand. I
already did this in my merge. This would make the distinction between
NOR and NAND flash more clearer. I also thought about renaming the whole
framework from flash_nand to simply nand. This would also match the API
names cyg_nand_xxx better. Are there any objections?
In fact, this is how I started out originally. But Andrew Lunn convinced
me to do otherwise:
http://ecos.sourceware.org/ml/ecos-discuss/2008-09/msg00172.html
I started out with eCos in it's default template. I was getting some
errors because of the missing ssize_t type. Either we should get rid of
it or add something like this to the CDL:
require CYGBLD_ISO_SSIZE_T_HEADER
My Ubuntu man page says that ssize_t should be defined by sys/types.h;
requiring CYGPKG_ISOINFRA ought to be good enough.
Other than that there is a little bit of cleaning up to do, but I think
that's all minor stuff.
I'm open for recommendations.
Next I copied the GPIO nand flash controller to make a synth version and
also copied a st-micro NAND chip driver to make a synth version. For
now, they are pretty empty skeletons. But I was able to build the NAND
subsystems with those dummy drivers. Of course, the test cases don't
work. It also occurred to me that the "shell.c" test has quite a few
dependencies. I just removed this test for the moment.
Yes, sure, "shell.c" allows a number of operations to be done
interactively. It is not so much in the vein of automated stress
testing. It was in fact my testing vehicle for a raw terminal program.
I'm fine with removing it from the standard test build, but I would be
sorry to see it go.
Now for the actual design of the synth driver. I think the best way
would be to implement a NAND simulator based on the ONFI specification.
Something similar has been done for the MTD framework, but I guess other
than for inspiration we're not allowed to use that code. So basically we
would simulate the interface to the chip. I guess we don't have to
simulate the signal lines. We just need some mechanism for chipselect
and reset I guess. The interface will more be along the lines of writing
commands, addresses, reading back etc. This means that the simulator
will be implemented as a state machine. There is even one described in
the ONFI specification for reference.
I never heard of an actual ONFI chip yet. Current chips are usually of
the regular large-page kind. It might be most practical to make a
generic regular large-page chip emulator that can be parameterized with
the Device IDs as enumerated in cyg_nand_chip_id[] in file
flash_nand/src/chip/io_nand_chip.c .
I think the basics can be implemented rather quickly. I guess we don't
need to simulate multiple concurrent LUNs, or does the framework already
support these?
Multiple LUNs is the same as multiple chips, as far as the NAND package
(or ONFI) is concerned. It should be supported, but it is untested
because I lacked hardware.
Well that's about it. I'll try to implement a simple simulator tomorrow
and see where I get. I post back some results as soon as I have something.
Simon
Rutger