File Allocation Table (
FAT) is a computer
file system architecture and a family of industry-standard file systems utilizing it. The FAT file system is a legacy file system which is simple and robust. It offers good performance even in light-weight implementations, but cannot deliver the same performance, reliability and scalability as some modern file systems. It is, however, supported for compatibility reasons by nearly all currently developed
operating systems for
personal computers and many
mobile devices and
embedded systems, and thus is a well-suited format for data exchange between computers and devices of almost any type and age from 1981 up to the present.