Embedded Software Insight
JBLopen specializes in embedded RTOS and bare-metal applications requiring high-end processors and SoCs as well as deeply embedded MCUs with aggressive resource and power constraints. Our research and development team provides the embedded market with cutting-edge software products. Meanwhile our consulting team can help you get your next project to market faster with improved features and performance using the latest embedded technologies.
TREEspan File System™ is a low footprint transactional file system for deeply embedded RTOS and bare-metal applications.
The BASEplatform™ is a portable platform support solution offering a complete set of drivers, BSP and RTOS integration for any MCU.
Embedded software development services, RTOS drivers & BSP, porting and integration. Firmware migration and custom SDK.
In this article, we explain how to connect, configure and access a serial NAND device connected through SPI to the Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF5340 MCU. In the process, we discuss serial flash fundamentals, write a fully functional SPI flash driver, and
In this article, we explain why serial SLC NAND flash is an ideal companion for Zephyr OS. We discuss some of the pitfalls to look out for when in comes to integrating NAND flash, and lay out the key ingredients
In this article, we discuss 4 popular NOR file systems, commonly used in bare metal and RTOS-based embedded systems: LittleFS, Yaffs, FileX and TSFS. We provide a brief description of each file system and compare their performance, RAM consumption and
This article discusses the performance limitations of the FAT file system with a focus on SD Card. After a brief refresher on FAT fundamentals, we show how FAT predictably achieves high access performances in the absence of fragmentation, but how fragmentation can build up until performances suddenly collapse. We conclude with a few important recommendations about the use of the FAT file system on embedded flash memory.
In this article, we explain how flash file systems achieve native support for raw flash devices. We compare flash file systems to a common alternative, which is the combination of a block device file system (e.g., FAT) with a flash translation layer (FTL), and we make the case that the native approach is a better overall solution.
In this article, we discuss the impact of real-time requirements on embedded file system performances and RAM usage. We show how to calculate the amount of buffering needed to absorb a hypothetical sequence of write accesses of varying duration. We show how RAM usage, write access time and average throughput are interdependent under our real-time assumption.
In this particular article, we show how the maximum average write throughput on a given flash device varies with the amount of stored data. We provide a simple performance model that can be used for setting realistic performance expectations, comparing file system performances, and questioning application requirements with minimal assumptions regarding the actual workload or file system implementation.
In this article, we cover five aspects of embedded file systems that you should have in mind when deciding which one to choose, five essentials that you can’t ignore. This is by no means a complete guide to embedded file systems but it covers enough to avoid common mistakes, particularly among application engineers who have little prior experience with embedded file systems.