PROJECT: SINGLIX Operating System   Issue: 5    Revision: 3   Date: 02/02/2008

OWNER: ERDOĞAN TAN / Istanbul / Turkiye

MASTER ALLOCATION TABLE Format of SINGLIX FS1, FS2 file systems

Offset

Item

DATA

Type

Size

Description of Item

0

MAT Sign

‘MAT’

Char

3 byte

SINGLIX Disk Allocation Table Descriptor

3

FS MAT Version

XXh

Byte

1 byte

Must be 0 for Current/This MAT Version

4

Volume Size

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Volume (FS) size in sectors

8

Beginning Sector

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Volume (FS) beginning sector (LBA)

12

DAT Address

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Beginning sector of the DAT (LBA)

16

Sector Count

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Number of DAT sectors

20

Free Sectors

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Free sectors of the Volume/FS

24

First Free Sector

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

First free sector of the Volume/FS

28

Reserved 1

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Operating system specific/reserved area 1

32

Reserved 2

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Operating system specific/reserved area 2

36

Reserved 3

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Operating system specific/reserved area 3

40

Reserved 4

XXXXXXXXh

Dword

4 byte

Operating system specific/reserved area 4

...

...

...

...

...

...

64

Reserved

XXXXXXXXh

Byte

448 byte

Unused/Reserved area

MAT (Master Allocation Table) is the header/decsriptor of the Disk Allocation Table. Disk Allocation Table (DAT) has 1 byte pointers for every sectors of the volume/FS. Evey pointer has spesific value which shows allocation type of the related FS sector.

Due to a possibility of any bad sectors in the DAT sectors. SINGLIX FS has ability to use different MAT/DAT addresses for the disk partition or the volume. At the FS initialization time or later, if DAT will have bad sectors, (OS) setup program will be able to change DAT to a new section of the FS/volume/partition.

DAT is comprised by consecutive, continual disk/FS sectors. So, if there will be any bad sectors in the DAT, it is required to move DAT to a new section of the disk/FS.

For example: For a 20 GB (41,943,040 sectors) TR-SINGLIX FS partition, DAT size is 81920 sectors or 40 MB. If there is no 81920 continual/consecutive free (non-bad) sectors at the beginning of the volume after the MAT sector or the FS boot sector, FS format program must locate the DAT to proper section without any bad sectors, with minimum 81920 continual/consecutive free disk/fs/partition/volume sectors.

DAT pointers are related to offset LBA addresses of the volume/fs sectors. Every pointer address offset in the DAT is equivalent of the sector offset in the FS/volume. (DAT byte 0 <=>  FS sector 0, offset LBA addresses).

Operating system will use volume beginning sector and free sectors area of the MAT. It will calculate and update free sectors value by adding or subtracting allocation procedure results (after deleting allocated sectors or allocating sectors). Or after checking free sector value, if it finds invalid value on there, it will calculate free sectors by checking DAT completely. (First free sector value update procedure will be performed by using some logic.)

Reserved areas on the MAT is for future versions of the FS and Operating System and also operating system specific calculations. (For example: The largest continual/consecutive free sectors value and beginning location of the largest continual/consecutive free sectors section. That is optional usage of the MAT but before MAT offset 64, it must be remembered that SINGLIX OS will be able to use these areas as spesific calculation areas; so, for compatibility purpose, MAT offset 28 to 64 are TR-SINGLIX Operating system spesific areas, and they will be declared later when SINGLIX operating system development stage is completed. They are unused MAT areas/fields for now.)

Because of SINGLIX FS uses Section Headers (FDT, RDT, DDT and others) in the partition/volume, it is possible to recover defective DAT section after any bad sector occurence in the DAT. The recovery program must relocate DAT to proper location, by recovery DAT pointers by checking headers/descriptors and signs on the partition/volume. For example: ’RDT’, ‘FDT’, ‘DDT’ are on the beginning of their retaled section descriptors. That is a superior feature of SINGLIX FS; so, disk allocation table is not most critical part of the file system. For example: FAT32 volume will be collapsed when FAT32 file allocation table cluster chain is lost/defective.  But SINGLIX FS will not be collapsed when the section headers (descriptors) are found on the the volume/FS, even if all of DAT is erased/deleted. (Every data section is just after of its descriptor/header. And Singlix FS descriptors –they are single sectors- have first descriptor, next descriptor, parent directory etc. relation pointers.)

FINALLY: Disk Allocation Table method, Master Allocation Table and RDT/DDT/FDT descriptor methods and section based disk allocation (no clusters, no inodes...) are superiority features of SINGLIX FS.