annotate doc/How-flash-really-works @ 1014:961efadd530a default tip

fc-shell TCH DL handler: add support for CSD modes TCH DL capture mechanism in FC Tourmaline firmware has been extended to support CSD modes in addition to speech - add the necessary support on the host tools side. It needs to be noted that this mechanism in its present state does NOT provide the debug utility value that was sought: as we learned only after the code was implemented, TI's DSP has a misfeature in that the buffer we are reading (a_dd_0[]) is zeroed out when the IDS block is enabled, i.e., we are reading all zeros and not the real DL bits we were after. But since the code has already been written, we are keeping it - perhaps we can do some tests with IDS disabled.
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:27:43 +0000
parents 39a6090a052a
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39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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1 How NOR flash memory really works
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2 =================================
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3
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4 The type of flash memory used in Calypso GSM devices is formally known as NOR
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5 flash. Most embedded software programmers and tinkerers know the fundamental
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6 principle of how NOR flash works: any bit can be transitioned from a '1' to a
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7 '0' at any time in any combination (an operation called programming), but the
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8 opposite transition (from '0' to '1' bits, an operation called erasure) can only
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9 be done on fairly large sectors - you can erase a sector and make it all 1s,
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10 but changing bits from 0 to 1 individually or in any smaller granularity
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11 (smaller than a sector) is impossible.
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12
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13 What many "software-minded" programmers and tinkerers don't realize, however,
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14 is that sector erasure is not an elementary or atomic operation that magically
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15 "makes all bits 1s" in one motion. Instead it is a complex process with two or
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16 three substeps:
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17
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18 1) Before starting the physical process of erasure, one has to go through all
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19 bits in the to-be-erased sector and make them all 0s. Any bits that are in
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20 '1' state when the sector erase operation is commanded MUST be programmed to
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21 '0' state before the actual erasure begins! In the language of flash chip
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22 industry, this step is called preprogramming. In the case of flash chips
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23 that are used in Calypso GSM devices (all known ones), this preprogramming
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24 step is done internally by the chip, so that you as the user or software
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25 developer are not aware of it - but it is there nonetheless. The chip does
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26 NOT magically "wave" all bits in the sector into '1' state, instead it first
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27 makes them all '0' internally, and only then erases.
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28
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29 2) Once every bit in the sector is in '0' state, the real physics of erasure
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30 begins. All bit cells in the sector are physically acted upon at once in
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31 this step, and because it is a probabilistic process involving a Gaussian
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32 distribution, all bit cells need to be in the fully programmed state before
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33 they begin their shared journey toward the erased state.
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34
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35 3) The step of preprogramming every bit to 0 prior to erasure prevents the
39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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36 absolutely unacceptable condition of gross overerasure - but given the
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37 Gaussian distribution, some bit cells may still get a little overerased.
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38 Many (most? all? not sure) flash chips therefore implement a third internal
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39 step before the software-visible "erase" operation is declared complete:
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40 they go through all bit cells in the just-erased sector, check for
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41 overerasure, and "soft-program" (move slightly to the right in the Vt
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42 distribution) any overerased cells. This step is called post-erase
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43 conditioning or recovery.
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44
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45 The above process was originally explained to me (Mother Mychaela) some years
39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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46 ago (around 2008, IIRC) by a Spansion support engineer on a conference call at
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47 my then day job - it was a project for a customer who was big and powerful
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48 enough to get top-tier support from chip vendors. More recently, however, some
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49 other flash vendors have posted public documents that provide the same
39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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50 explanation - here is one from Renesas/Adesto:
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51
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52 https://www.freecalypso.org/pub/embedded/flash/REN_an500_APN_20210702_1.pdf
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53
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54 Even though the above document was written by Renesas (or more precisely, the
39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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55 part that was originally Adesto), the theory described therein applies just as
39a6090a052a doc/How-flash-really-works: article written
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56 well to Intel, Spansion and Samsung flash chips that are used in Calypso GSM
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57 devices. For anyone who wishes to know how NOR flash memory really works, I
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58 strongly recommend reading that Renesas appnote - it is a good description.
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59
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60 Additional note on terminology: describing the two states of a flash memory cell
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61 as '0' and '1', like I did above, is only a convenience for software-minded
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62 people. A more proper view is to think in terms of a "programmed state" and an
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63 "erased state" for each bit cell. History and tradition are such that flash
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64 chips return '0' on read in the programmed state and '1' in the erased state
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65 (this tradition probably originates from the fact that the actual NV storage
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66 element, a transistor, conducts read current in the erased state), at least for
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67 the main flash array - however, when flash memory elements are used for
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68 additional purposes such as write protection controls, it is best to think
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69 natively in terms of programmed and erased states. For the latter kind of
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70 special applications, an opposite polarity may be applied in read-bit values.
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71
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72 One straightforward take-away from this theory is that flash endurance is really
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73 about program-erase cycles, rather than number of program or number of erase
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74 operations. Every time you give a sector erase command, every bit in that
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75 sector cycles through the fully programmed (0) state first before becoming
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76 erased (1), irrespective of whether or not you programmed into it on your own!
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77 Hence every bit-cell of the affected sector always goes through a full
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78 program-erase cycle, and all bits in a given sector are always cycled equally,
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79 irrespective of whether they get written with mostly-0s or mostly-1s in between
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80 erase cycles.
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81
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82 Another situation where this raw physics gets exposed to the user is the case
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83 of special-purpose non-volatile bits in flash chips outside of the main flash
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84 memory array - for example, Persistent Protection Bits (PPBs) in some Spansion
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85 and Samsung flash chips. While program and erase commands for the main flash
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86 array invoke chip-internal mechanisms that take care of everything and present
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87 a sane model of 0s and 1s to software, Spansion PL-J PPB program and erase
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88 commands expose raw guts: there is a command that applies a raw program pulse
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89 to a single PPB, and there is a command that applies a raw erase pulse to the
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90 NV memory element (like a little sector of its own) that holds all PPBs.
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91 Applying the erase pulse without preprogramming every PPB first would be very
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92 bad (see Renesas appnote about the badness of overerasure) - hence in a seeming
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93 paradox, one has to explicitly lock every sector before applying PPB erase
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94 pulses that will eventually unlock everything!
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95
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96 Our flash ppb-erase-all command does implement the preprogramming step before
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97 actual erasure, and the present document (hopefully) explains why.