Ftl_format
creates a Flash Translation Layer partition on a flash memory device.
It needs to access the flash partition's raw character-mode device
(such as
/dev/mem0c0c ).
This is actually a low-level format operation, required before
accessing a memory device via the FTL block device driver. Once a
partition is prepared with
ftl_format ,
a filesystem should be created in a separate step. Filesystem
commands should access the device via the FTL device file (such as
/dev/ftl0 ).
Optionally,
ftl_format
can reserve a region at the beginning of the flash card address space
for a boot image (or any other purpose). The boot area is not part of
the FTL partition, and can only be accessed via the raw memory device.
On Intel Series 100 flash cards, the first flash block is used to
store the card's configuration information structures. If no boot
area is specified on the command line,
ftl_format
will automatically create one to span the first block.