PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF FLASH FILE SYSTEMS FOR FLIGHT DATA RECORDERS HOSTING CFDP
- Paper number
IAC-08.D1.5.9
- Author
Mr. Alan Mick, The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. W. Mark Reid, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The use of fully functional file systems is becoming more common on spacecraft designed specifically for science missions. A file system offers several advantages from a software engineering perspective, and is often a requirement for the use of other desirable software components, such as the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP). Often these file systems are used in conjunction with volatile, high speed memory, such as a RAM-based DOS file system, but the use of flash memory provides several advantages including more storage capacity for less mass and power. In addition, flash memory is non-volatile, which enhances reliability. Although flash file systems are common software products in embedded and other systems, the space environment levies requirements that are not always easily met by commercial, off-the-shelf packages. Among these considerations are over-current protection, wear leveling, stringent power management, EDAC encoding of the data stream, and provisions for asynchronous DMA transfer for high speed recording from flight instruments. This paper reports the results of tailoring a commercial, off-the-shelf, flash file system for the requirements of scientific space missions and reports the performance obtained utilizing it in conjunction with a CFDP implementation.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)