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1.5KB Wear-levelling FLASH filesystem driver... — Parallax Forums

1.5KB Wear-levelling FLASH filesystem driver...

GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
edited 2011-07-02 22:43 in General Discussion
A guy developing a 8bit homebuild FORTH computer kit just posted about his 1.5KB(C Source code. Assume smaller executable code) FLASH file-system with real wear-levelling.

And yes, he's planning to GPL it all.
(At least that's what he wrote in the Google group posting.)

http://oneweekwonder.blogspot.com/2011/07/flashy-fignition.html

He's working with an AVR chip, but It should be portable to other platforms.

Yes, I'll admit that I own one of his kits. Serial no. 0185 to be exact.
(They're only sold to Europeans as of yet, as he's using PAL composite video for output. )

Comments

  • UnknownUnknown
    edited 2011-07-02 04:36
    We have another post on it.

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?132695-new-amazing-future-computer
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2011-07-02 07:25
    Nope, that's not even close.

    The 'future computer' is a pen...

    This is about a wear-levelling flash filesystem, created for use on an 8bit computer.

    I posted the link because I believe this is something that can be adapted for use with the Propeller, and possibly other Parallax products.

    Wear-levelling: the art of spreading the usage evenly across the entire device so that no area ends up 'worn out' before the others.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-07-02 08:22
    Gadgetman wrote: »
    I posted the link because I believe this is something that can be adapted for use with the Propeller, and possibly other Parallax products.
    There is a Propeller forum post that talks about starting a project like this.
    Did you see a pointer to any of his C source?
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2011-07-02 09:00
    The Google group post, with attachments is here:

    http://groups.google.com/group/fignition/browse_thread/thread/228c7a15794ea912#

    I believe the FIGnition computer uses I2C for its flash storage...
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2011-07-02 09:36
    I was under the impression that the controller on USB drives and SD cards already did wear leveling. Am I mistaken?
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-07-02 09:52
    kwinn wrote: »
    I was under the impression that the controller on USB drives and SD cards already did wear leveling. Am I mistaken?
    It does.

    However, using standard flash for a file system store requires adding the wear leveling code. Some reasons to use non SDcard Flash are for performance (synchronous byte at a time) and improved mechanical reliability (no interconnect).
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2011-07-02 16:18
    Thanks for clearing that up jazzed.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-07-02 22:43
    I believe there are already several embedded Linux OSes that offer wear-leveling Flash file systems for much more that 1.5KB. Wikipedia may help explain.

    The problems with wear-leveling Flash tend to grow as the size of the Flash memory grows. So small systems have been done, it is the when you get into larger storage -- say 1GB and beyond -- that problems of bogging down speed arise.
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