Samsung has announced new drivers and file systems it claims will “significantly” improve the performance of embedded flash memory in embedded devices running Linux and other operating systems. The software will accelerate all file operations, when used with Samsung's “OneNAND,” “Flex-OneNAND,” and “MoviNAND” memory products, the vendor says.

Samsung did not quantify the expected speed gains, but said the new software “optimizes data transactions within its memory chips as they interact with the operating system.” All operations involving flash memory access become faster, including not only booting a system, but also creating, removing, reading, or writing files, according to the company.

Samsung says its embedded flash software includes several file systems and flash drivers. The file systems — UniFS, PocketFS, and RFS — execute typical file operations such as creating, removing, reading, and writing files. The flash drivers — UniStore, PocketStore, XSR and FSR — convert file system requests into low-level flash operations including programming, reading and erasing. The drivers also prolong the flash memory's lifetime by wear-leveling and bad-block replacing, the company says.

Touting its move from 60nm production technology last year to 50nm technology this year, Samsung says its OneNAND memory is now offered in densities from 256 Megabit (Mb) to 2 Gigabit (Gb). More than 100 million units of OneNAND have sold since its introduction in 2006, and sales are expected to exceed 500 million units by the end of this year, the company adds.

Meanwhile, MoviNAND, also introduced in 2006, is said to simplify design by combining a MultiMediaCard v.4 (MMC) controller with NAND. Flex-OneNAND, introduced earlier this year, is described by Samsung as a single-die solution with the high-speed characteristics of SLC (single level cell) NAND and the high density of MLC (multi level cell) NAND.

Availability

Samsung did not say when its new flash file systems and drivers will become available to device manufacturers. However, the software will support devices based on Linux, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Symbian, and unspecified RTOSes (real-time operating systems), according to the company. The company did not reveal licensing details for the drivers.

 
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