FATFS Based File Access

FatFs R0.09 is used to access the binary file on the SD card. It has been ported to Atmel devices and is ready for usage as the third party module through Atmel Software Framework (ASF), which is released with Atmel Studio or individually. The needed source files for the FatFs module are included in the firmware pack.

In this bootloader implementation, only read operation is necessary while write operation is not. So to save memory space, the FatFs module should be configured to read-only and the table below lists some main settings.

Table 1. Main Settings of FATFS Module
Setting name Value Description
_FS_TINY 1 When _FS_TINY is set to 1, FatFs uses the sector buffer in the file system object instead of the sector buffer in the individual file object for file data transfer. This reduces memory consumption 512 bytes each file object.
_FS_READONLY 1 Only read operation is required for the binary file
_FS_MINIMIZE 3 The minimized level to remove functions not used in this implementation
_VOLUMES 1 Only 1 volume (logical drive) is used
_MAX_SS 512 Always set 512 for memory card
_USE_ERASE 0 Disable sector erase feature
_WORD_ACCESS 0 Byte-by-byte access