FUNDAMENTALS OF OPERATING

SYSTEM
Presented by:Mr.Vipul Gamit
 Unit – 1
Introduction of Operating Systems, File Systems
and Management
What is Operating System ?.

•The software layer, nearest to hardware, which facilitates launching

all the software utilities and applications is called the operating system.

•An Operating System is a program that acts as an intermediary

between the user of a computer and the computer hardware.
PURPOSE OF OS

 To provide an environment in which user can

execute programs in a convenient and efficient
manner.
FUNCTIONALITIES OF OS
 It offers a very wide range of general data
services to input , output, store and process
information in a computer system.

 To achieve this OS manages devices such as

keyboard, display unit, processor, memory and
other devices of i/p and o/p.
A real time control application:-
 A Real Time Control Application
•
(cont..)
Above supervisory program has one task to accept input information
by reading out a sensor periodically.

•The next task of this program is to process this data.

•The final task is to prepare an output.

A REAL TIME CONTROL
APPLICATION (CONT..)

 The cycle of operation is repeated in the following

sequence:
1. Input task
2. Process data
3. Output task
•OS provide that software layer, in a
computer system which schedules all the
operations and manages all the computing
resources as well.
What does an OS provides?
•User access to the system

•Storage and management of information

including protection against an accidental or
intentional misuse.

•Support for data processing activity

•Communication with a variety of IO devices.

•Management of all the activities in a transparent

manner in multi-user operating system. Users
are unaware of the presence of other users.
WHAT DOES AN OS DO ?
 On power-on, the OS makes sure that the system has a
certain initial set-up.
 On a request from a user application, for a resource or
for IO, the OS makes appropriate access checks & the
requested facility or service is either made available or
denied.
 Since multiple-user applications are supported at any
time of operation, the OS makes sure that each user,
or application, gets the resources they require. This
means that OS must schedule the demands on system
resources.
WHAT DOES AN OS DO ? (CONT..)
 In case an error occurs during an operation, it should
be logged & recorded. Basically, the OS records the
sequence of events that lead to the error condition.
 The OS supports operations & services that require
communication over a network.
 (Optional) The OS supports some deadlines so that
safety critical operations run & fail gracefully.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW
 To understand the management functions provided
within an OS, to manage various resources.

 Primary resources are :-

- processor
- memory
- I/O devices
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Processor
 OS ensures that each user gets sufficient
processor time.

 Processor time needs to be shared.

 Toschedule & allocate processor time for every

user & for every running application.

A computer executes programs & accesses data

from its main memory.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Memory
 A computer executes programs & accesses data from
main memory.
 Main memory (Volatile).

 Another level of storage(secondary memory)-disk &

tapes.
 They are Non-volatile.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Memory (cont..)
 For enhancing throughput is to have an intermediate
storage which can take up different rates or timings of
Input/Output.

 A processor access registers at a speed which is far in

excess of the main memory access.

 Therefore, one choose to place cache at an

intermediate level of storage between CPU & main
memory.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
I/O devices
 User interaction takes place through an I/O
device.

 OS provide utilities for all the required

communication with I/O devices.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
I/O devices (cont..)
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
I/O devices (cont..)

 Interrupt mode of data transfer is used wherever

a user, or a critical application, requires
immediate attention.
 Interrupts are not used to handle large amount of
data transfers.
 Solution to problem, used DMA(Direct Memory
Access) mode.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
I/O devices (cont..)

 2 Stages of DMA mode of data transfer :-

- Data transfer requirement – setup(how much
data to transfer & where it is located)
- After setup, device & processor compete with each
other to seek memory access.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Communication with devices :-
 A computer may be connected to variety of
devices(keyboard, monitor, printer, modem)
 OS provide device service utilities – that cater
requirements of individual device characteristics.
 Utilities supported by OS – execute a sequence of
instructions stored in a device driver.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Mutual Exclusion
 Problem posed by devices is mutual exclusion.

 Two users want to output on printer which

shared then may both documents content is
interleaved.
 So OS need to schedule the use of shared
resources.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Elements of Unix Operating
System
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
Shell of an OS
 A user never communicates directly with the OS
service routines.
 OS service routines are resident in a kernel which
cannot be directly accessed by a user program or by an
application.
 OS services are sought by a user via a command
interpreter provided by a shell around a kernel.
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
 The shell interprets the OS commands & elicits
OS services by communicating with the kernel.
 Thus a shell protects the system service routines
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
AN OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW (CONT..)
HCI(Human Computer Interface)
 Notice that we have a set of icons presented in
Windows or Unix operational environment.
 This icons invite user to launch the application.

 Unix users operate in command driven

environment.
PROCESSES & TOOLS
Processes
 A program in execution – known as process.

 With multiple applications active at the same

time there are many processes that are active.
 OS needs to manage all processes.

 Often applications may create processes that

need to communicate with each other. This is
called interprocess communication.
PROCESSES & TOOLS (CONT..)
Processes
 In network one machine seeking services called
the client machine & machine offering services
called server.
PROCESSES & TOOLS (CONT..)
Tools
 Most OS provide many other general purpose utilities
– as a set of packaged tools.
 Tools- helps to think in terms of higher level of
operations.
 In absence of tools & toolkits we required to write
fresh program each time to accomplish the task.
PROCESSES & TOOLS (CONT..)
Tools
 Sort utility in Unix

 Zip tools in windows environment

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FILE SYSTEMS AND MANAGEMENT

33 Chapter:2
FILE

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 Any organized information is a file.

 E.g. Student Roll No.

 File contains sequence of bit(or byte).

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FILE SYSTEM

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 A file system is that software which allows users
and applications to organize their files.

 The organization of information may involve

access, updates, and movement of information
between devices.

 Files are organized in tree structure in directory.

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FILE SYSTEM (CONT...)

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FILE TYPES

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 Files tend to use file type information within a
name.

 File descriptor – A file descriptor is the value

containing information necessary to use a file : a
pointer to the file, the access rights, the access
modes (read or write), the current position in the
file, etc.

 A file descriptor is kept within the file structure

and is often used by the file system software to 37
help OS provide management services.
FILE TYPES (CONT..)

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 In windows, if we create a file suppose using
notepad or word and save it.

 Then an icon appears with file

 This icon of specific application environment is

displayed by OS represented the type of the file
created.

 Now , to open this file we just double click on file

or other way right click on file icon and select
open. 38
FILE TYPES (CONT..)

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 For a user the extension in the name of a file
helps to identify the file type.

 When a user has a very large number of files, it is

very helpful to know the type of a file from its
name extensions.

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FILE TYPES (CONT..)

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FILE ATTRIBUTES

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 In addition to the file types, a file system must
have many other pieces of information that are
important which are termed as File Attributes.
- location at which file available on disk
- size of file
- when created, i.e. date and time of creation
- owner of the file
- access permissions on file(i.e. read, write,
execute)

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FILE OPERATIONS

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 Files are stored in secondary storage(physical
view of a file).

 A file system(as a layer of software) provides a

logical view of files to a user or to an application.

 OS gets all the information it needs to physically

locate, access, and do other file-based operations
whenever needed.

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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 From operational point of view, a user should be
able to create a file.

 We will considered him/her as owner of the file.

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CON..

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 The owner can save and store the file.

 He should be able to read the contents or even

write into the file.

 He should also be able to display, rename, and

append to this file.

 He may even wish to copy or even delete the file.

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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 OS provides service for operations such as below

- indicating who else has an authorization of an

access to read or write or execute this file.

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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 One may need information on file sizes.

 One may wish to determine the number of lines,

words or characters in a file.

 For such requirements, a shell may have a suite of

word counting programs.

 File names may bear a common stem to help us

categorize them.

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 For e.g. I tend to use prog for my program text files.
FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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 A programmer derives considerable support
through use of regular expressions within file
names.

 Use of a regular expression enhances a

programmer’s productivity in checking or
accessing file names.

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)

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Makes a copy of file 'debian' and call it 'Debian‘
$ cp -i debian Debian
Rename file 'unix' to 'Unix’
$ mv -i unix Unix
Move file Unix from your home directory to /tmp.
$ mv -i newhw/hw1 oldhw
$ rm –i prgSum.c
$ mkdir foo
$ ls –l
$ cd foobar 50
FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)
The ls command

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Unix’s ls command which lists files and subdirectories.

-a list hidden files

-d list the name of the current directory

-g show group ownership of file in long listing

-i print the inode number of each file

-l long listing giving details about files and directories

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)
Using regular expressions

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 Most OS allow use of regular expression operators in
conjunction with the commands.

 One may input a partial pattern and complete the

rest by a * or a ? Operator.

 This not only saves on typing but also helps you when
you are searching a file after a long time gap and you
do not remember exact file name completely.

 C*p*2 or *2*
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 my_prog?
FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)
Using regular expressions

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 Regular Expression is a set of Characters that
specify a pattern.
 Used when you want to search for specific lines of
text containing a particular pattern.

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FILE OPERATIONS (CONT..)
Using regular expressions

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 When same file needed in two separate
directories.

 First solution : Keep two copies, one in each

directory.

 Second solution : Use ln command for creating

symbolic link regardless of directory locations in
file system.

 But a shared file link should be in the same disk

partition. 54
FILE ACCESS RIGHTS

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Access permission:-

 A file system manages access by checking a file’s permissions.

o File may be accessed to read or write or execute.

o The usage is determined by the context in which it is created.

o Example:-
Consider a file supporting an application of bus schedules.
It shall contain a bus time-table with the following restrictions
- read-only permission for the general public,
- read, write permission for the supervisor,
- read, write and execute permissions for the management. 55
FILE ACCESS RIGHTS (CONT..)
Who all can access a File?

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 Unix recognizes three category of users – user/owner,
group and others.
 Owner may be a person or a program or an
application or a system based utility.
 The notion of a group comes from the software
engineering team operations.
 Others has the public usage.
 Organization of this information is as 9 bits
rwxrwxrwx
for each owner, group and others where each r w x is
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an octal number, e.g 100 100 100 gives read
permission for owner, group and others.
FILE ACCESS AND SECURITY

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In Unix, owner of a file can change its
permissions using chmod command which has a
syntax as follows:

chmod pattern fileName as in chmod 644 myFile

e.g : 644 corresponds to the pattern rw-r--r--

664 corresponds to the pattern rw-rw—r--
ls –l command displays the access permissions of
a file.
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SECURITY CONCERNS
 File permissions are the most elementary and

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effective form of security measure in a stand alone
single user system.
 Some systems provide security by having
passwords for files.
 Enhanced security would be to encrypt a file with

some key.
 Unix provides crypt command to encrypt files.
Syntax is :
crypt EncryptKey <InputFile> OutputFile

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INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR FILE
MANAGEMENT

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INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR FILE
MANAGEMENT

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FILE STORAGE MANAGEMENT

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 An OS needs to maintain several pieces of
information for file management, e.g. access and
modification times of a file.

 Audit Trail gives who accessed which file and did

what.

 In Unix, these trails are maintained in the syslog

file

 useful to recover files after a system crash and to

detect unauthorized accesses to a system. 61
FILE STORAGE MANAGEMENT

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 Unix internally recognizes 4 different file types
(1)ordinary(2) directory(3) special and (4)named.

 Ordinary files are those created by the users

programs or utilities.

 Directory files organize the files hierarchically,

they are different from ordinary files.

 Inode structure is used by Unix to maintain

information about the named files. 62
INODE STRUCTURE IN UNIX

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INODE STRUCTURE IN UNIX

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FILE CONTROL BLOCKS

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 The Microsoft counterpart of an inode is a File
Control Block (FCB).

 The FCBs store file name, location of secondary

storage, length of a file in bytes, date and time of
its creation etc.

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FILE CONTROL BLOCKS (CONT..)

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THE ROOT FILE SYSTEM

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 When an OS is installed initially, it creates a root
file system.
 The OS not only ensures but also specifies how
the system and user files shall be distributed for
space allocation on the disk storage.
 Almost always the root file system has a
directory tree structure.
 In OS with unix flavours the root of the root file
system is a directory.
 The root is identified by “/”. The root file system
has several subdirectories.
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THE ROOT FILE SYSTEM (CONT..)

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CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED IN UNIX

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 Subdirectory usr contains binaries sharable by
system and user - read-only usage mode.
 Executable programs are found in subdirectory
bin found at any level.
 Subdirectory sbin contains some system
executable files – used during boot time and
power on.

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CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED IN UNIX
(CONT..)

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 Subdirectory lib contains libraries – found at several
places in the file system. Subdirectory etc contains host
related files – has many subdirectories to store
configuration (config), internet (hosts) and device (dev)
information.
 Subdirectory mnt contains device mount information (in
Linux).
 Subdirectory tmp contains temporary files created during
file operation.
 Subdirectory var contains files that have variable data
E.g. mail and system log contain variable data. It may also
have subdirectories for spools.
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CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED IN UNIX
(CONT..)

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 Each user name will find his home directory as
/home/name
 Subdirectory include contains all C header files.

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THE ROOT FILE SYSTEM (CONT..)
 The OS creates disk partition to allocate files for
specific usages.

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 A certain disk partition may have system files and
some others may have other user files or utilities.
 The system files are usually programs that are
executable with .bin in unix and .exe extension in MS
environment.
 In unix Subdirectories are like:- /usr, /bin, /sbin , /lib,
/etc/hosts, /etc/config, /mnt, /tmp, /var.

ADVANTAGE:-
o The system knows exactly where to look for some
specific routines.
o Users can customize their operational environment by
providing a definition for an environment variable
PATH which guides the sequence in which the OS
searches for the commands. 72
BLOCK-BASED FILE ORGANISATION

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 Data transfer take place from disks in blocks as
large as 512 or 1024 bytes at a time. Any file
which a user generates moves in blocks.

 Each operating system has its own block

management policies. These policies map each
linear byte stream into disk blocks.

 NOTE:- A policy on storage management can

heavily influence the performance of a file
system.
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CONTIGUOUS ALLOCATION
Let us assume we know apriori(well in advance)

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
the size of files before their creation.

 So this information can always be given to OS

before a file is created and the OS can simply
make space available.

 In such situation it is possible to follow pre-

allocation find a suitable starting block so that
the file can be accommodated in a contiguous
sequence of disk blocks.
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CONTIGUOUS ALLOCATION (CONT..)

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Advantage
Retrieval of information is very fast.

Disadvantages
Requires apriori knowledge.
It leaves no room for changes.

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CONTIGUOUS ALLOCATION (CONT..)

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CHAINED ALLOCATION:- (DYNAMIC BLOCK
ALLOCATION)
Why we need this type of allocation?

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 .

 It is not always possible to know apriori the size

of file being created

 There are some files that already exist and it is

not easy to find contiguous region(area).

 For example, there may be enough space

available on disk but you may not find a single
large enough chunk to accommodate an incoming
file. 77
CHAINED ALLOCATION (CONT..)
How allocation is done?

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 A list of free blocks is maintained. Allocation is made
as need arises. We may allocate a block at a time from
a free space list.
 The OS maintains a chain of free blocks and allocates
the next free block in the chain to an incoming file.
This way the finally allocated files may be located at
various positions on the disk.
 Advantage:-
Free space management system(no waste space).
Simple because need only starting address.

 Disadvantage:-
Random access to blocks is not possible.
Overhead - Maintenance of chained links. 78
CHAINED ALLOCATION (CONT..)

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INDEXED ALLOCATION

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 We maintain an index table for each file in its
very first block.

 So, it is possible to obtain the address

information for each of the blocks with only one
level of indirection.

 Advantage over dynamic allocation method is a

direct access to every block of file.

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INDEXED ALLOCATION (CONT..)

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INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAGMENTATION
Internal Fragmentation

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 In mapping byte streams to blocks we assumed a block size
of 1024.

 In previous example, file-1 of size 1145 byte was allocated

two blocks.

 The two blocks together have 2048 bytes capacity.

 We will fill the first block completely; the second block will
remain mostly empty as only 121 bytes out of 1024 bytes
can be used.

 As the assignment storage is by blocks in size of 1024

bytes, the remaining bytes in the second block cannot be
used. Such non-utilization of space caused internally (as it
is within a file’s space) is termed internal 82
fragmentation.
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAGMENTATION
(CONT..)
External Fragmentation

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 After a number of file insertions and deletions or
modifications the free-space list becomes smaller in size.

 For instance, we have a file which was initially spread over

7 blocks. Now after few edits the file needs only 4 blocks.

 This space of 3 blocks which got released is now not

connected anywhere. It is not connected with the storage
list either.

 As a result we end up with a hole of 3 blocks which is not

connected anywhere. After many file edits and operations,
many such holes of various sizes get created.
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INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAGMENTATION
(CONT..)

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External Fragmentation
 Suppose we now wish to insert a moderately
large-sized file, thinking that adequate space
should be still available.

 Then it may happen that the free-space list has

shrunk so much that enough space is not
available. This may be because there are many
unutilized holes in the disk. Such non-utilization,
which is outside of file space, is regarded as
external fragmentation.
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INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAGMENTATION
(CONT..)

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 A file system therefore, must periodically perform
an operation to rebuild free storage list by
collecting all the unutilized holes and linking
them back to free storage list. This process is
called compaction.

 When you boot your system, often the compaction

gets done automatically. This is usually a part of
file system management check.

 Sometimes this is also referred to as a garbage

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collection.
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAGMENTATION
(CONT..)

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DISK PARTITION
 It allows better management of disk space.

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 In most cases the disk partitions are created at
the time the disk is formatted.

 So a formatted disk has information about the

partition size.

 Every partition has its own file system

management information.

 This information is about the files in that

partition which populate the file system. 87
DISK PARTITION (CONT..)

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 Unix ensures that the partition for the system
kernel and the users files are located in the
different partition (or file systems).

 Unix systems identify specific partitions to store

the root file system, usually in root partition.

 Another use in the PC world is to house two

different operating systems, one in each
partition.
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DISK PARTITION (CONT..)

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 A disk partition, with all it’s essentially a set of organized
information. It has its own directory structure(tree
structure).

 This tree gets connected to some node in overall tree

structure of the file system and forks out.

 The network file system may have remote partitions

which are mounted on it. It offers seamless file access as
if all of the storage was on the local disk.
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PORTABLE STORAGE
 There are external media types like tapes, media,
floppies.

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 They can be physically ported.

 Most file system recognize these as online files

when these are mounted on an IO device like
tape drive or floppy drive.

 UNIX treats these as special files.

 PCs and MAC OS show an icon when these are 90

mounted.
PORTABLE STORAGE (CONT..)

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 Files are the entities that users deal with all the
time.

 Users create files, manage them, and seek

system support in their file management activity.

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FLASH MEMORY

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 Flash memory is a type of electrically erasable
programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).

 The name comes from how the memory is designed --

a section of memory cells can be erased in a single
action or in a "flash”.

 Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip

that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.

 It is used as an extension to secondary memory.

 It is used as an external memory. 92

THE EVOLUTION:-

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 It was the discovery from TOSHIBA.

 Flash memory is preferred media storage in

hand-held and embedded systems.

 Flash memory cards used for digital cameras,

camcorders, cellular phones, video games
networking hardware, and PC cards.

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FLASH MEMORY (CONT..)

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The development of flash memory in last two decades

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FLASH MEMORY (CONT..)

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 Structure of flash memory:-
“cell” is capable of storing one bit(0 or 1) information,
would be the smallest physical as well as logical
structure. Cells are constructed from basic transistor
circuitry.
With cell as a structural unit, it is possible to study
characteristics that impact operational aspects like
access for read, write or execute operations.
 There are two kinds of cells:-
NOR logic structure
NAND logic structure
respectively referred as NOR flash and NAND flash.
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FLASH MEMORY (CONT..)

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 NAND flash is more commonly used for storing
program codes and persistent data file, memory
cards, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and
similar products, for general storage and transfer
of data.

 NOR flash which allows true random access and

therefore direct code execution, is used as a
replacement for the older EPROM and as an
alternative to certain kinds of ROM applications.

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 ORGANIZATION OF NAND FLASH
Below figure shows how starting with a cell, pages and blocks are defined in
NAND flash

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ORGANIZATION OF NAND FLASH.

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1. First see how a group of eight cells form a byte.
2. Register size is same as the page size in the
memory.
3. A block consists of multiple pages. Anywhere up
to 64 pages may form a block.
The flash memory may have capacity of 256 MB
to 32 GB.
4. and 5. the memory controller regulates serial
read/write operations.

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ORGANIZATION OF NAND FLASH (CONT..)
 Bulk read/write is at page level.

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 It is possible to maintain a hash-table to identify
the block in which the page is located.

 A controller can be used to regulate and manage

the traffic in and out of flash.

 NOR flash, the unit of read/write is a byte.

 NOR flash is a random access memory.

 NAND flash is accessed serial within a page. 99

FLASH MEMORY (CONT..)

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 Flash is extensively used in consumer electronic
appliances.

 In PCs it is used either as a physically detachable

storage device.

 Removable device (pen drive) uses flash.

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FLASH MEMORY (CONT..)

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 Flash is used as an intermediate storage in the
following three ways:-

- As a store file system to boot the system.

- As an intermediate storage for communication
with secondary devices.
- It is also used to store code and programs that
are frequently accessed in an embedded system.

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FLASH USED TO STORE FILE SYSTEM

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 Some embedded Linux versions may use initrd to
store full-fledged file systems in compressed form in
flash. To operationalize file system, the following
steps come in fore :

- The compressed file system together with the

initrd image is loaded into RAM.

- The boot sequence transfers control next to the

kernel to execute the initialization sequence.

- The kernel decompresses the file system &

mounts it appropriately in RAM using the RAM disk 102
driver.
FLASH USED AS CACHE
 Flash memory used as intermediate storage between

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DRAM and hard disk.

 Requires 2 stages of data transfer :- from cache to

flash and disk to flash.

 Both of these data transfer would have to be in page

size of flash.

 Traditionally, the cache is between primary memory

and hard disk drive.

103
FLASH USED AS CACHE (CONT..)

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104
FLASH USED AS CACHE (CONT..)
 One way of facilitating the access from the cache is to
maintain a hash table in the DRAM.

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 The hash table in DRAM holds the tags for each block
of flash.

 These tags direct access to pages in the flash.

 Both NOR and NAND flash memory management

systems must be wear-aware.

 Because flash has limited count of erase cycle

somewhere between 10,000 to 100000 depending on
the technology.

 The erase count maintained in DRAM for each block 105

to ensure that the cache is still reliable.
FLASH USED AS CACHE (CONT..)

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 Alternatively, flash may itself stores the erase
count.

 In fact, for this is the reason why an update is

done as a new copy instead of writing back in the
same block.

 This avoids having a “hot spot” with too frequent

erasures.

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FLASH MEMORY COMMANDS

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Typical commands for flash memory pins are as
follows :-

CE : Chip Enable
WE : Write Enable
OE : Output Enable
ADE : Address Latch Enable
CDE : Command Latch Enable

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FLASH MEMORY COMMANDS (CONT..)

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 With this command structure a write would
require the steps to disable output, enable
address latch, enable write lines followed by chip,
enable to perform the write operation.

 Most suppliers of flash memory in embedded

environment have development kits which would
allow one to write drivers for the memory in high
level language like C.
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FLASH MEMORY COMMANDS (CONT..)

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 The C language program is ultimately translated
into the low level enable commands which
regulate the voltage levels on respective pins on
the chip.

 These voltage signals achieve the desired

function of read/write/erase, etc.

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FLASH MEMORY FILE SYSTEM
 File systems like ext2 (Linux) use 4 K block size.

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 This does not match with the page size in flash.

 So, it requires matching file system for the flash.

 The first file system, FFS2, for flash memory was

given by Microsoft.

 However, under the aegis of PCMCIA, the

international industry association, definition of
file translation layer(FTL) foe flash evolved. 110
DESIGNING FLASH MEMORY FILE SYSTEMS
1) To obtain good response time & also for
reliability, it is recommended to spread the

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writes over the entire media.
By observing this write once & read often
policy we can expect better response times for
NOR flash, which has a higher erase & write
times.

2) With NOR flash architectures, which are

inherently parallel, it is possible to have
simultaneous read & write operations.
On NAND flash, this is not possible due to serial
control.

111
DESIGNING FLASH MEMORY FILE SYSTEMS
3) Usually, when the flash is updated one writes
the updated copy in a new block. Once the new

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block has been written the pointers to the file
are updated. This is particularly useful for
NAND memories where the updates are
frequent.

4) NAND flash is often described as hard-disk-

drive on a chip. The NAND flash is organized as
“pages” akin to sectors on hard disk. Also, the
serial control makes it suited for storing &
retrieving data which has sequential character
like images audio or data structures for PC.
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DESIGNING FLASH MEMORY FILE SYSTEMS
5) For NAND flash stored data one can get the

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effect of random access at system level by
“shadowing” data to RAM. But it occupies RAM
storage.

5) NAND flash use error-correcting code(ECC) to

maintain data integrity.
In short, NAND flash may have bad data
blocks but with ECC we can still hope to use it.
So NAND flash is more fault tolerant.

113
FLASH FILE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

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114
FLASH FILE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
 At the top level (hierarchical - tree directory
structure).

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 This is uniform view regardless of the device.

 So user view for flash also continues to be

hierarchical within directory structure i.e. file have
names and host directory.

 Kernel shown at intermediate level in figure, handles

IO.

 IO gets appropriately identified with buffers.

 File system translation layer finally selects an

appropriate driver for device. 115
FLASH FILE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

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 In figure, MTD(memory technology device) flash
is driven by “driver-k”.

 Drivers finally manage the actual data transfer

with the protocol preparing the chip to receive or
send data using a buffer of appropriate size.

116