Atmel DataFlash™

TINY-DF

TINY-DF been specifically designed and optimized to handle DataFlash. These devices have two features that require special handling in a reliable file system:

If a sector has been subjected to 10,000 write operations, then each page in the sector must be re-written.
DataFlash devices are accessed through RAM buffers for efficient communication. Therefore, when a page is committed, it is first erased, and then the new buffer is written. One result can be that if power is lost during this sequence, data may be lost.

TINY-DF has been designed to handle these devices reliably, in such a way that the developer does not need to worry about the storage method. The issues are managed in the background; this adds a minimal overhead, which is typically less than 5%, but in the worst case is about 15%. The recommended algorithm – to copy a page each time one is written – would add a 100% overhead and would not be failsafe.

All Atmel DataFlash types are supported.