The Common Flash Memory Interface (CFI) is an open standard jointly developed by
AMD,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...
,
Sharp and
Fujitsu
is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...
. It is implementable by all
flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both u ...
vendors, and has been approved by the non-volatile-memory subcommittee of
JEDEC
The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association is an independent semiconductor engineering trade organization and standardization body headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, United States.
JEDEC has over 300 members, including some of the w ...
. The goal of the specification is the interchangeability of flash memory devices offered by different vendors. The developer is able to use one driver for different flash products by reading identifying information from the flash chip.
Each flash memory device contains the following information: memory size, byte and word configuration, block configuration, and voltage and timing data.
The specification provides several benefits. No or very little information about flash devices has to be stored in tables within system software. It is possible to use lower cost flash memory devices as they become available without rewriting system software. Adapting current software systems shall be done more easily and quickly than previously.
Support for CFI is implemented in
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
.
See also
*
Open NAND Flash Interface Specification (ONFi)
References
{{Reflist
External links
JEDEC - free documents require registration
JEDEC - Common Flash Interface (CFI) Specification, JESD68.01, September 2003. JEDEC - CFI ID Codes, JEP137B, May 2004JEDEC - Standard Manufacturers ID Code, JEP106AC, August 2010Spansion
Common Flash Interface Publication 100 (CFI Vendor & Device ID Code Assignments), 2001.Original link
Spansion - App Note - CFI Spec, 2008.
Original link
Spansion - App Note - Using CFI to Read and Debug Systems, 2007.
Original link
Spansion - Quick Guide to Common Flash Interface, 2008.
AMD
Non-volatile memory
AMD technologies