NAME

     nand — NAND Flash framework

SYNOPSIS

     device nand

DESCRIPTION

     The FreeBSD nand framework consists of a set of interfaces that aim to provide an
     extensible, object oriented environement for NAND controllers and NAND Flash memory chips
     from various hardware vendors, and to allow for uniform and flexible management of the NAND
     devices.  It comprises of the following major components:

     •   NAND Flash controller (NFC) interface.

         Defines methods which allow to send commands as well as send/receive data between the
         controller and a NAND chip.  Back-end drivers for specific NAND controllers plug into
         this interface and implement low-level routines for a given NAND controller.

         This layer implements basic functionality of a NAND Flash controller.  It allows to send
         command and address to chip, drive CS (chip select line), as well as read/write to the
         selected NAND chip.  This layer is independent of NAND chip devices actually connected
         to the controller.

     •   NAND chip interface.

         Provides basic operations like read page, program page, erase block.  Currently three
         generic classes of drivers are available, which provide support for the following chips:

         •   large page

         •   small page

         •   ONFI-compliant

         This layer implements basic operations to be performed on a NAND chip, like read,
         program, erase, get status etc.  Since these operations use specific commands (depending
         on the vendor), each chip has potentially its own implementation of the commands set.

         The framework is extensible so it is also possible to create a custom command set for a
         non standard chip support.

     •   NANDbus.

         This layer is responsible for enumerating NAND chips in the system and establishing the
         hierarchy between chips and their supervising controllers.

         Its main purpose is detecting type of NAND chips connected to a given chip select (CS
         line).  It also allows manages locking access to the NAND controller.  NANDbus passes
         requests from an active chip to the chip controller.

     •   NAND character / GEOM device.

         For each NAND chip found in a system a character and GEOM devices are created which
         allows to read / write directly to a device, as well as perform other specific
         operations (like via ioctl).

         There are two GEOM devices created for each NAND chip:

         •   raw device

         •   normal device

         Raw device allows to bypass ECC checking when reading/writing to it, while normal device
         always uses ECC algorithm to validate the read data.

         NAND character devices will be created for each NAND chip detected while probing the
         NAND controller.

SEE ALSO

     libnandfs(3), gnand(4), nandsim(4), nandfs(5), makefs(8), mount_nandfs(8), nandfs(8),
     nandsim(8), nandtool(8), newfs_nandfs(8), umount_nandfs(8)

STANDARDS

     Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group (ONFI).

HISTORY

     The nand framework support first appeared in FreeBSD 10.0.

AUTHORS

     The nand framework was designed and developed by Grzegorz Bernacki.  This manual page was
     written by Rafal Jaworowski.