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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Flash memory size...

so i tested my flash memory using the HAL function (using word mode...)

ret_code = alt_get_flash_info(fd, &regions, &number_of_regions);

the result was printed as:

printf("\nFlash Region Structure:\r\n");

printf("Number of Regions: %d\r\n", number_of_regions);

printf("Offset: %d\r\n", regions->offset);

printf("Region Size: %d\r\n", regions->region_size);

printf("Number of Blocks: %d\r\n", regions->number_of_blocks);

printf("Block Size: %d\r\n\r\n", regions->block_size);

THE OUTPUT IS:

Flash Region Structure:

Number of Regions: 2

Offset: 0

Region Size: 65536

Number of Blocks: 8

Block Size: 8192

care some one tell me how this information translates to my flash memory having a 8MB memory???

also what is region size and why my regions is only 2?

11 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    8192 * 8 * 65536 * 2 = 8MB (+ spare bytes for ECC).

    Why don't you just tell us which flash device you are using?

    Jake
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    hello but 8192 * 8 * 65536 * 2 = 8589934592 <-- byte right?

    or am i seriously misunderstood something here....
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    The code output only reports the size of the first region, which seems to be 64kbytes, split in 8 blocks of 8kbytes each.

    Could you display the size of the second region?

    From the datasheet, it seems that this flash memory has a "boot sector" option, and I'm guessing that the first region reported is your boot sector.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    regions is in fact a table, so this code:

    printf("Offset: %d\r\n", regions.offset);
printf("Region Size: %d\r\n", regions.region_size);
printf("Number of Blocks: %d\r\n", regions.number_of_blocks);
printf("Block Size: %d\r\n\r\n", regions.block_size);
    with i between 0 and number_of_regions-1, will give you the information about region i.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    Found this:

    Flash Region Structure:

    Number of Regions: 2

    Offset: 65536

    Region Size: 8323072

    Number of Blocks: 127

    Block Size: 65536

    ok is there any way i could combine these 2 regions???

    also when writing, should i offset my first data entry point by that (65536) much ?? (skipping the first region....)

    or i could write from offset 0...?

    my data length is 65035...
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    The second region starts right after the first one, so I would say that you can use all the flash as one big region and start at offset 0.

    I don't know the specifics about the first "boot sector" region, it could just be a special erasing procedure. There could be more info in the flash datasheet.