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About flash memory

One of the boards I am working on has a 16-bit STMicro NOR flash. According to the datasheet, four cycles are required to program the flash through software.

1) 0x555 = 0xAA 2) 0x2AA = 0x55 3) 0x555 = 0xA0 4) actual address = actual data

My questions are:

a) In 1), 2) and 3) above, does the flash's internal mechanism actually write the given data bytes at the given locations, for example, 0xAA at the location 0x555 which happens to be in the first sector? If the board loses its power before 4) is done, then will 0xAA/

0x55/0xA0 be there in the flash if I read its contents using a hardware tool?

b) What would happen, if, say, immediately after 1) or 2) or 3) above, the RTOS task that wanted to (raw) write to a sector is preempted (due to some bad coding) by another task that invokes some file I/O routines to access the flash file system layered on top of other sectors?

Any link that explains the flash internal workings would really be helpful. Thanks.

Reply to
VG
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The first 3 writes are to the Command Registers in the On-Chip Controller, and tell it that the 4th write is the actual write address/data pair.

You must ensure that the 4-write sequence is "atomic", and cannot be pre-empted.

Read The Fine Data Sheet.

HTH!

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Reply to
RCIngham

No, the AA/55/A0 will never be programmed. If you lose power just after you write at 4), the data itself may be partially written.

Make sure that doesn't happen.

Also, don't run code from that flash (some devices excepted in certain circumstances)

Reply to
Arlet Ottens

On Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:20:28 -0800, VG scribbled:

(a) has already been answered, for (b) ... flash is like a coke machine, do EXACTLY what it says and you'll get a coke. Deviate in the slightest and ... nothing. That is to say, if you have a stray write, or read, to flash before steps 1 - 3 complete then the fourth write will fail. If 1 - 3 complete then the fourth write is a write whether from the desired or interrupting task; and if 1 - 3 complete and there's a read then the fourth (now fifth access) will silently fail. flash is dumb, really dumb.

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Reply to
Bill Dennen

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