FreeCalypso > hg > freecalypso-sw
view doc/TIFFS @ 224:2900fe603f8a
beginning of MPFFS->TIFFS naming convention change
author | Michael Spacefalcon <msokolov@ivan.Harhan.ORG> |
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date | Sun, 12 Jan 2014 07:59:00 +0000 |
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children | 1852900ce9ea |
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All TI GSM firmwares known to this author (FreeCalypso developer Space Falcon) implement some kind of flash file system, or FFS. Several different FFS code implementations, and correspondingly several different on-flash data formats, have been used throughout the history of TI's involvement in the wireless terminal business. The FFS incarnation of primary interest to the FreeCalypso project is the one invented by Mads Meisner-Jensen at TI in the early 2000s (at least according to the comments in the sources available to us), and it is relevant to us in the following ways: * When targeting the GSM modem in Openmoko's GTA01/02 smartphones, we need to work with the original FFS from the factory (call it MokoFFS), the same FFS as used by the mokoN firmwares: this FFS contains the IMEI and the RF calibration values from the factory, which we most certainly don't want to go without. * The Leonardo firmware semi-src which we are using as the reference for building our own full source, multi-target GSM fw contains a turnkey-working implementation of this very FFS, using the on-flash format in question and providing run-time APIs expected by the rest of the GSM fw suite. Following the principle of ``if it ain't broke, don't fix it'', we can use this FFS not only on the gtamodem target, but also on other targets, including those where we would be starting from a blank state and thus have the freedom to use whatever FFS we like. * The original proprietary fw on the Pirelli DP-L10 phone also happens to use an FFS in the same format. Pirelli's FFS does *not* contain the IMEI or any of the RF calibration values though, and trying to reuse it directly for our own FC GSM fw seems to be more trouble than benefit - so we'll probably have our fw start with a blank TIFFS instead - but there is still insight to be gained from in-vitro examination of captured Pirelli FFS images. Naming ====== I have previously referred to the FFS format in question as Mokopir-FFS or MPFFS, from "Moko" and "Pirelli". I was originally hesitant to call it TIFFS, as lacking the source code, I had no way of knowing whether the FFS format and implementation were of TI's own invention, or something that TI licensed as a black box from one of their many proprietary software partners. (I was unable to identify it as any well-known, industry-standard FFS format, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.) But now that we have TI's original source code which implements this FFS (first the MV100-0.1.rar source, then the full Leonardo one), complete with comments and a HISTORY file, we know that our FFS was invented and implemented by someone named Mads Meisner-Jensen at TI - I'm guessing in the SSA group in Nice, France. I am now making a naming transition from MPFFS to TIFFS: there is really no link between this FFS format and the Openmoko+Pirelli duo, other than the happenstance of me having first encountered this FFS on these two GSM device brands, and the name TIFFS is more neutrally-descriptive.