Today, while programming the UFS chip at the client’s site, we found that the programming time was relatively long.
In an article we published in September, we introduced UFS (Universal Flash Storage), which is a high-performance, low-power embedded non-volatile storage solution. Its features include high-speed read/write, low latency, and low power consumption. However, we felt that the actual programming speed was slower than that of eMMC. The programming of eMMC using our AP8000 is considered the fastest in the industry, capable of handling 8G/16G/32G/64G, and even 128G in just a few minutes. Why does programming a 64G UFS chip take 15 minutes here? (As shown in the figure below) This is because we are using online programming mode for the UFS chip, which means that after connecting to the computer, the content from the computer’s cache is written into the UFS chip. This leads to higher requirements for the computer’s configuration, which will be discussed later in this article.
The second strange phenomenon is that when programming 4 chips simultaneously at the client’s site, the programming time increased to 50 minutes for one round. (As shown in the figure below)
Our programmer is clearly parallel, and programming 4 chips simultaneously should yield the same programming time as programming 1, 2, 3, or 4 chips. Why does it feel like it is serial, with the time adding up for each chip? The programming speed for one chip is 31m/s, taking 15 minutes; for two chips, it is 18m/s, taking 25 minutes; and for four chips, it is 9m/s, taking 45 minutes. What is the point of the client buying a programmer with 4 ports?
Currently, there are three ways to speed up the UFS programming software:
1. Selection of the scan unit size (applies to raw data, requires reading the original data from the master chip in bin format, then converting to UFZ)
The default is 1MB, which can be adjusted to 4MB/2MB/ or larger for speed testing.
2. Use of the UFZ image generator, selecting the compression method as 0. High Speed.
3. If only adjusting the UFX, try adjusting the speed gear, setting it to 3B for the fastest speed.
After a series of software speed enhancements, the effect was still not significant. We could only suspect whether the client’s computer met our requirements of having a solid-state drive +USB3.0 or higher interfaces.
Here’s a brief overview of computer knowledge:
Finally, we had the IT department get a new computer confirmed to have a solid-state drive +USB3.0 and recreated the project files. After retesting, the programming time for the 64G content was finally normal, taking 8 minutes, and programming 4 chips simultaneously also took 8 minutes.
In summary, the requirements for the computer during online programming are very high, especially for larger capacity chips, where the difference is quite noticeable. For smaller capacities, the time difference may only be a few seconds, which might not be felt. Therefore, we recommend the following requirements for the programming computer:
Learn the basics, understand the underlying logic, and programming is actually very simple!!!