OSS + ELC EU 2026

Modern OSPI NAND devices are pushing the Linux SPI memory stack beyond its original assumptions. Features such as DDR transfers, continuous read modes, multi-frequency operation, and PHY tuning promise substantial performance improvements, but at the cost of added complexity. Furthermore, there is no well-established standard for these implementations, leading vendors to adopt different approaches and assumptions that software must accommodate.

This talk will walk through recent upstreaming efforts to enable advanced OSPI NAND capabilities in Linux. We will focus on one of the most challenging aspects: the introduction of fine-grained PHY tuning, which allows operating frequencies to be doubled or even tripled, enabling significantly faster transactions between the NAND device and the host controller.

Introducing such features has raised a number of architectural challenges. We will discuss both the specifics of PHY tuning and the broader subsystem considerations required to support increasingly sophisticated flash devices. Particular attention will be given to integration challenges across the SPI-MEM and MTD stacks, as well as the lessons learned while upstreaming the solution.