[U-Boot] [RFC] utilize flash small block sizes to reduce flash footprint

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Andreas Pretzsch,

In message <1285564526.21734.187.camel at ws-apr.office.loc> you wrote:
> In a nit-picking moment trying to save some flash storage, I looked at
> the current typical flash layout of U-Boot and came up with below RFC.

Thanks.

> I'd volunteer to provide an implementation for the architectures I have
> close at hand today (Blackfin, ARM11), as time permits. For other
> architectures, I'd need some assistance.

You design a big and somewhat complicate solution for a problem which
does not exist, because it has already been solved more than a decase
ago, i. e. right with the very first versions of U-Boot (or PPCBoot, as
it was called by then).

We call this feature "embedded environment", and all what it takes to
use it oin a machine is a somehwat hand-crafted version of the linker
script which aligns the location of the environmentin the right
(small) flash sectors.

This works like a charm, and I recommend you have a look into this.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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