Proposal for an Open Source Flash Failure Analysis Platform (FLAP)

1. Proposal for an Open Source Flash Failure Analysis Platform (FLAP) By Michael Tomer, Cory Shirts, SzeHsiang Harper, Jake Johns

2. Introduction • Cory

3. Introduction • Flash Memory prevalence • Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Cameras, Hard Drives • Still a new Technology • NAND flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles, its behavior past this limit has not been widely analyzed • Goals • Create a open source system to test NAND flash memory

4. BOM(Bill of Materials) • FPGA BOARD VENDOR INFORMATION • Altera contact: university@altera.com • 357 S McCaslin Blvd, Louisville, CO 80027 • F: 303-926-4945 P: 303-926-4955 • Part # : DE2 DE2 Development & Education Board • Time: 3-5 Days Price/Unit Cost: $269.00 • Quantity: 1 Total Cost: $269.00

5. BOM(Bill of Materials) • Possible Alternative FPGA • Digilent Inc. www.digilentinc.com • P.O. Box 428, Pullman, WA 99163 F: 509-334-6306 P: 509-334-6306 • Part # : XUPV2P Virtex-II Pro Development System • Time: 3-5 Days Price/Unit Cost: $299.00 • Quantity: 1 Total Cost: $299.00

6. BOM(Bill of Materials) • NAND FLASH VENDOR INFORMATION • Micron Technology contact: Dennis Z. • 8000 S Federal Way, Boise, ID 83706 • F: 651-994-8186 P: 208-994-8200 • Part # : 29F2G08AAC 2 Gbit w/ 8 bit I/O • Time: 3-5 Days Price/Unit Cost: $0.00 • Quantity: 6 Total Cost: $0.00 • Provided by Micron

7. BOM (Bill of Materials) • Software Components • The following software components will be used to complete this project: • TortoiseSVN 1.4.5 subversion client – Free Download [7] • Subclipse plugin for Eclipse/NIOS IDE – Free Download [8] • Altera Quartus II Web Edition Verilog development environment – Free Download [9] • Altera Nios II Embedded Design Suite – Free Download [9] • LibUSBDotNet – C# LibUSB-Win32 wrapper for generic USB drivers – Free Download [5] • Visual Studio 2008 - IDE for C# GUI development – Provided by MSDNAA [10] • Microsoft SQL 2008 Server - SQL database engine to store results -- MS SQL Express – Provided by MSDNAA [11]

8. Daughter Board / Memory Controller and FPGA • Jake

9. FPGA • Altera DE2 Development Board • NIOS II processor • Runs C code • Interfaces • USB (for communication with the computer) • IDE (for communication with the Daughter Board)

10. FPGA • System On A Programmable Chip • Components are modularly programmed and developed • FPGAs USB doesn’t need to know the specifics of the Daughterboard • Internal components communicate over the Avalon Bus • The SOPC builder tool helps to automate the integration process

11. Integration • The Avalon bus on the Altera FPGA allows segmentation of the various components • USB controller • Flash memory controller • GUI • Each component can be developed separately without majorly affecting the other components and integrated with other components at a later date

12. Daughter Board • Contains the 48-pin TSOP socket where the flash memory chip is tested. • Communicates with FPGA through an IDE cable (but not using IDE interface)

13. NAND Memory Controller • Responsible for writing and reading from NAND chip • Generates appropriate write signals • timing of these signals is very important • Reads the responses from the NAND chip • Writes results directly into RAM (shared memory model) • Designed by last year’s team

14. USB interface • Sze

15. USB interface • LibUSBDotNet • Open source USB interface libraries • Coded in C# • Much easier that programming a full windows driver • Last years team had trouble getting USB working because they were trying to write their own USB driver

16. USB interface • FPGA USB interface • Communicates with the host PC • Is programmed in firmware • Responsible for: • receiving commands from the host PC • Transmitting results to the host PC

17. USB interface • Usb interface on host PC stores results in a SQL database • using the ActiveX Data Objects Classes of the .NET framework to communicate with the database • Normalized database • T-SQL (Transactional SQL) • extension to the SQL database programming language • Initially SQL database will store basic info but can be expanded

18. Graphical User Interface on the PC and Risks • Mike

19. Graphical User Interface on the PC • Running tests • The GUI will allow the user to program a series of tests to run on the flash memory • Commands • Read page and Verify • Program a page • Erase a block and check for failures • Automated Testing patterns can be specified • range of blocks to test • Number of cycles to run for • Can use specific memory patters or randomly generated patterns for testing.

20. Graphical User Interface on the PC • Memory testing patterns • RAM test patterns do not work well for testing flash memory (March pattern) • Example: writes or reads cause cells in a different cell to be changed. • Need to choose testing patterns that solicit these types of failures • 5n

21. Graphical User Interface on the PC • Viewing Results • See raw data • Sometime necessary • Display Graphs of data • Allow the user to see trends over time • examples • Flash memory is unreliable after X cycles • Certain blocks of memory are more susceptible to failure than others

22. Conclusion • Hartman

23. Risks • Previous team(2006-2007) was unable to get full system working. • They were only able to get the interface between the daugterboard and the fpga operational • We will need to test and debug their interface for full functionality

24. Risks • The previous team was unable to get USB working properly • We may still have significant issues with usb connections • Hopefully using libusbdotnet will solve this

25. Risks • We will need to complete quickly enough so that we can run tests on memory and determine failure patterns and rates

26. Implementation Timeline

27. Conclusion • Using data generated by the FLAP platform it will be possible to: • Determine the best ECC algorithms • How many spare blocks per chip are necessary • Predict failure rates for specific use patterns (server vs. workstation use, etc)