OESF Forums > Upgrading To Faster Cf Card

iamasmith

May 27 2006, 01:57 AM

OK, I have taken the plunge and ordered a SanDisk Extreme III CF card (133x card) that has ~20MB/sec Read and Write speeds with the intention of replacing my internal 4Gb Microdrive on my Zaurus.

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1182)...tFlash_4GB.aspx

I chose this card because it seems to offer good value for money (about £140 GBP in the UK now), top performance, and a 10 year manufacturers warranty.

Note that there is a Transcend 8Gb card also available for about the same price now, however, the warranty isn't lifetime it is 1,000,000 write cycles and the operational temperature is lower.. I decided to err on the side of caution therefore and go with this card which is known to have write spreading technologies and may yield a considerably longer life (maybe).

I also didn't need the 8Gb version because all my Multimedia stuff is on my iPod.. I prefer to do it this way then at least when the battery is dead from listening to music and watching movies I still have my Zaurus

I believe the write levelling on this card will probably (even with constant running) see out the life of this Zaurus but I guess that only remains to be seen.

When the card arrives I will do some benchmarks and provide some information on runtime with both the original Microdrive and this card fitted since the power consumption is also supposed to be a fraction of the Microdrive.

Benchmarks will probably come first since I can perform those with the card in the additional CF slot.

but daaaaamn, I'm going to ruin my 'uptime' figures. I get disappointed if I have to reboot it more than once per month

More soon,

-Andy

(btw. in case you are wondering why I have been quiet here it's because my Zaurus 'just works

' and does everything I need it to at the moment... currently it's even running Ruby on Rails with MYSQL - it will be nice to see what performance is like with the new drive for this)

chuckr

May 27 2006, 06:52 AM

QUOTE(iamasmith @ May 27 2006, 01:57 AM)

OK, I have taken the plunge and ordered a SanDisk Extreme III CF card (seems to be a 120x card although this isn't explicitely stated) that has ~20MB/sec Read and Write speeds with the intention of replacing my internal 4Gb Microdrive on my Zaurus.

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1182)...tFlash_4GB.aspx

I chose this card because it seems to offer good value for money (about £140 GBP in the UK now), top performance, and a 10 year manufacturers warranty.

Note that there is a Transcend 8Gb card also available for about the same price now, however, the warranty isn't lifetime it is 1,000,000 write cycles and the operational temperature is lower.. I decided to err on the side of caution therefore and go with this card which is known to have write spreading technologies and may yield a considerably longer life (maybe).

I also didn't need the 8Gb version because all my Multimedia stuff is on my iPod.. I prefer to do it this way then at least when the battery is dead from listening to music and watching movies I still have my Zaurus

I believe the write levelling on this card will probably (even with constant running) see out the life of this Zaurus but I guess that only remains to be seen.

When the card arrives I will do some benchmarks and provide some information on runtime with both the original Microdrive and this card fitted since the power consumption is also supposed to be a fraction of the Microdrive.

Benchmarks will probably come first since I can perform those with the card in the additional CF slot.

but daaaaamn, I'm going to ruin my 'uptime' figures. I get disappointed if I have to reboot it more than once per month

More soon,

-Andy

(btw. in case you are wondering why I have been quiet here it's because my Zaurus 'just works

' and does everything I need it to at the moment... currently it's even running Ruby on Rails with MYSQL - it will be nice to see what performance is like with the new drive for this)

I'm very interested here, because I just finished doing all the spelunking into my own SL-C3000, and I feel ready (hardware-wise) to begin replacing my own hard disk. I've chosen a 8 Gb Seagate hark disk (I found one for about $140, which seemed about $40 too expensive, but no one else seemed to have it at all). That's a whale of a lot cheaper than a 8Gb flash would be, I think it's more reliable, and I haven't checked the speed, but isn't the hard disk faster than a huge flash like that? Since I can't even hear my present hard disk, and the Seagate is spec'ed at no louder, I figure that the flash and the hard disk are both effectively silent in running, right?

iamasmith

May 27 2006, 07:23 AM

Somebody on the openbsd.org mailing lists mentioned that they got errors with the 8Gb Seagate Microdrives and suggested that it may be a power issue... They ended up reutilising the 8Gb drive in something else.

The goal of this exercise really is performance and battery life, however, I shall document the replacement process and liberally add photos.

-Andy

fquindos

May 29 2006, 01:29 PM

I'm very interested in your findings. I've just measured my 3200 battery life today, and got the same results: 4 h. uptime (9:29 - 13:29) with the lid closed and the wifi card connected. I used a cron job to log the apm status each minute. Apm showed a 100% for an hour, 95% for five minutes and 91% the rest of the time :-)

Have you measured charging time? For me, it takes many hours (12, maybe, I'm not sure) to get the yellow led off. I charge with OpenBSD running. I'm wondering if this could also improve with a flash card instead of a microdrive.

QUOTE(iamasmith @ May 29 2006, 06:49 PM)

In the eagerness that I have experienced whilst waiting for the new card (possibly Tuesday this week) I have started to benchmark the existing configuration and I will compare this against the new card when I have it/fit it.

here are the results with the Microdrive...

... a few lines ...

-Andy

DaemonsGR

May 29 2006, 02:48 PM

QUOTE(fquindos @ May 29 2006, 11:29 PM)

I'm very interested in your findings. I've just measured my 3200 battery life today, and got the same results: 4 h. uptime (9:29 - 13:29) with the lid closed and the wifi card connected. I used a cron job to log the apm status each minute. Apm showed a 100% for an hour, 95% for five minutes and 91% the rest of the time :-)

Have you measured charging time? For me, it takes many hours (12, maybe, I'm not sure) to get the yellow led off. I charge with OpenBSD running. I'm wondering if this could also improve with a flash card instead of a microdrive.

QUOTE(iamasmith @ May 29 2006, 06:49 PM)

In the eagerness that I have experienced whilst waiting for the new card (possibly Tuesday this week) I have started to benchmark the existing configuration and I will compare this against the new card when I have it/fit it.

here are the results with the Microdrive...

... a few lines ...

-Andy

sorry but wifi uses more power than lan card! test with no wifi and log it every min to a log file

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 12:50 AM

Well the card just arrived and I popped it into my Zaurus..

Firstly, a nice surprise, the card is somewhat higher capacity than the Microdrive 4g != 4g it seems

The new card appears to be 8005536 sectors instead of 7999488 like the Microdrive. I wanted to just dd the old installation over so I opted to make wd1a the same size as wd0a and increase my swap space. At the moment the card is running the bonnie++ test. I will then reboot it and dd the image and do a trial boot off the external CF slot.

(it does mean of course that I can't backup the whole CF card with dd but I can still dd wd0a->wd1a with Microdrive in the external slot later)

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 07:04 AM

all went well finally, man it's a swine to get some of the screws out and there is a nice little 'requires soldering iron' part that nobody mentions.

There is actually a copper foil earth strap near the IR transceiver that on some units is a longer wire. If you have a unit with the longer wire you can get the board out.. if you have a unit with the copper foil (like mine) you must unsolder it and resolder later.

My dd though seems to have overwritten the drive parameters with the Microdrive ones and although the unit 'looks good' and is definitely fast the disklabel reports Microdrive label and stats.

I have just reinitialised the drive and am now using cp -Rp to transfer the OpenBSD installation from the Microdrive to the SanDisk card... more later.

-Andy

albertr

May 31 2006, 07:19 AM

Cool, please let us know how does it fire up against the microdrive.
P.S. My C1000 didn't have copper foil...
-albertr

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 07:55 AM

Will do as soon as it has finished copying (full set of tests as previously documented).

If you take a look at this pic..

http://photos4.flickr.com/7220418_4f9406c0ce_b.jpg

(from the original Japanese disassembly site) you can see that the 3000 has a wire strap (top right), whereas on the 1000 in the picture has the Copper Foil (looks like a rectangular copper blob) on the piccy.

It should be noted that I spoke to Trisoft about this asking advice (after taking full responsibility and voiding warranty etc.) they mentioned they tried it with an Ultra II card and had about 1 week of runtime before the card failed... lets hope I get better results than that

-Andy

albertr

May 31 2006, 08:18 AM

I see a wire strap on C3000, but It's hard to see anything on that photo... Do you see it here:

http://www.iral.com/~albertr/linux/zaurus/wireless/back.jpg

-albertr

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 08:36 AM

Ok here are the results so far, only just started the battery test so we will have to see how long that takes.

CODE

Battery life test

Lid closed, using Socket Low Power CF 10/100 Ethernet card run top across remote ssh connection and removed charger cable. Time is measured between power cable being removed and the time that the time stops on the top display.

Microdrive: 4 hours runtime. +/- ~3 mins

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III: again 4 hours runtime almost exactly

Disk Labels..

Microdrive:

# Inside MBR partition 3: type A6 start 63 size 7999425
# /dev/rwd0c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: HMS360404D5CF00
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 16
sectors/cylinder: 1008
cylinders: 7936
total sectors: 7999488
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0

16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 7737281 63 4.2BSD 2048 16384 328 # Cyl 0*- 7675*
b: 262144 7737344 swap # Cyl 7675*- 7935
c: 7999488 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 7935

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III:

# Inside MBR partition 3: type A6 start 63 size 8005473
# /dev/rwd0c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: SanDisk SDCFX-40
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 16
sectors/cylinder: 1008
cylinders: 7942
total sectors: 8005536
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0

16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 7743329 63 4.2BSD 2048 16384 328 # Cyl 0*- 7681*
b: 262144 7743392 swap # Cyl 7681*- 7941
c: 8005536 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 7941
mungo#

Observations, note that the Sandisk card is slightly larger than the the Microdrive.

Bonnie++ disk performance test

Microdrive:

Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 2223 31 2297 11 1221 18 1939 93 2256 71 31.6 3
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1252 48 8291 100 3263 51 1279 45 8345 99 1622 26

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III:

Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 3162 98 3902 91 1498 95 1905 97 2414 99 100.5 17
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1329 43 9492 99 4118 64 1499 53 8321 95 2869 48

A considerable boost in # of operations a second, particularly random operations (as anticipated).

Loading and subjective performance tests of overcommit and swap (swap is to a 128Mb swap partition rather than into a file within the ffs filesystem)

Initial process snapshot..

load averages: 0.18, 0.10, 0.09 14:35:43
15 processes: 14 idle, 1 on processor
CPU states: 0.0% user, 0.0% nice, 0.0% system, 0.0% interrupt, 100% idle
Memory: Real: 6524K/20M act/tot Free: 38M Swap: 0K/128M used/tot

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE WAIT TIME CPU COMMAND
5398 root 2 0 3164K 2096K idle netio 0:00 0.44% sshd
3524 root 2 0 1096K 1652K sleep select 1:51 0.00% sendmail
15880 root 2 0 532K 1416K idle select 0:14 0.00% sshd
15415 root 2 0 408K 712K idle select 0:06 0.00% cron
15487 _syslogd 2 0 268K 604K sleep poll 0:08 0.00% syslogd
10292 root 2 0 156K 580K idle kqread 0:00 0.00% apmd
784 andrews 3 0 480K 400K sleep ttyin 0:00 0.00% ksh
26489 root 2 0 232K 616K idle select 0:00 0.00% inetd
1 root 10 0 396K 264K idle wait 0:00 0.00% init
515 root 2 0 240K 532K idle netio 0:00 0.00% syslogd
10688 andrews 28 0 320K 1092K onproc - 0:00 0.00% top
22573 andrews 2 0 3164K 1720K sleep select 0:00 0.00% sshd
19317 root 3 0 192K 640K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% getty
13301 root -6 0 148K 528K idle htplev 0:00 0.00% hotplugd
25241 andrews 18 0 476K 396K sleep pause 0:00 0.00% ksh

Time taken to arrive at full xfce4 interface with following process list (from hitting return at startxfce4 line).

Microdrive: 1 min 20 seconds

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III: 1 min exactly

load averages: 0.88, 0.42, 0.21 14:38:19
28 processes: 1 running, 26 idle, 1 on processor
CPU states: 10.0% user, 0.0% nice, 2.2% system, 0.0% interrupt, 87.8% idle
Memory: Real: 37M/52M act/tot Free: 6348K Swap: 0K/128M used/tot

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE WAIT TIME CPU COMMAND
23173 andrews 30 0 4744K 13M run - 0:14 21.83% xfce4-panel
24097 andrews 2 0 5456K 8512K sleep select 0:08 3.66% Xorg
2985 andrews 2 0 1604K 7256K sleep poll 0:03 1.56% xfdesktop
29168 andrews 2 0 1684K 7384K sleep poll 0:04 1.27% xfwm4
25483 andrews 2 0 828K 5720K sleep poll 0:01 0.49% xftaskbar4
3826 andrews 2 0 756K 5492K sleep poll 0:03 0.20% xfce4-session
21582 andrews 2 0 1212K 4984K sleep poll 0:01 0.20% xfce-mcs-mana
22779 andrews 2 0 628K 2168K sleep poll 0:05 0.05% xscreensaver
3524 root 2 0 1096K 1652K sleep select 1:51 0.00% sendmail
15880 root 2 0 532K 1416K idle select 0:14 0.00% sshd
15415 root 2 0 408K 712K sleep select 0:06 0.00% cron
15487 _syslogd 2 0 268K 604K sleep poll 0:08 0.00% syslogd
5398 root 2 0 3164K 2096K idle netio 0:00 0.00% sshd
10688 andrews 28 0 392K 1112K onproc - 0:00 0.00% top
10292 root 2 0 156K 580K sleep kqread 0:00 0.00% apmd
22573 andrews 2 0 3164K 1720K sleep select 0:00 0.00% sshd
784 andrews 18 0 480K 400K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
2644 andrews 10 0 220K 992K idle wait 0:00 0.00% xinit
26489 root 2 0 232K 616K idle select 0:00 0.00% inetd
1 root 10 0 396K 264K idle wait 0:00 0.00% init
515 root 2 0 240K 532K idle netio 0:00 0.00% syslogd
28389 andrews 18 0 480K 400K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
19317 root 3 0 192K 640K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% getty
13301 root -6 0 148K 528K idle htplev 0:00 0.00% hotplugd
25241 andrews 18 0 476K 396K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
10947 andrews 2 0 1772K 792K idle netio 0:00 0.00% Xorg
13201 andrews 18 0 472K 356K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
18 andrews 2 0 276K 616K idle select 0:00 0.00% ssh-agent

Time taken to arrive at AbiWord (all screen parts painted) loaded with GB dictionary support enabled (from selecting icon from xfce4 panel).

Microdrive: 48 seconds

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III: 40 seconds

load averages: 0.82, 0.56, 0.30 14:40:54
29 processes: 28 idle, 1 on processor
CPU states: 12.8% user, 0.0% nice, 3.4% system, 0.0% interrupt, 83.8% idle
Memory: Real: 32M/57M act/tot Free: 1220K Swap: 2052K/128M used/tot

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE WAIT TIME CPU COMMAND
17282 andrews 2 0 8444K 15M sleep poll 0:25 14.06% AbiWord-2.4
23173 andrews 2 0 4884K 11M sleep poll 0:31 9.03% xfce4-panel
24097 andrews 2 0 5632K 5428K sleep select 0:16 5.62% Xorg
25483 andrews 2 0 1624K 7168K idle poll 0:04 0.78% xftaskbar4
22779 andrews 2 0 628K 1568K sleep poll 0:05 0.10% xscreensaver
2985 andrews 2 0 1628K 5816K sleep poll 0:03 0.05% xfdesktop
3524 root 2 0 1096K 1044K sleep select 1:51 0.00% sendmail
15880 root 2 0 532K 448K idle select 0:14 0.00% sshd
15415 root 2 0 408K 620K idle select 0:06 0.00% cron
29168 andrews 2 0 1748K 6708K idle poll 0:05 0.00% xfwm4
15487 _syslogd 2 0 268K 540K idle poll 0:08 0.00% syslogd
3826 andrews 2 0 756K 4508K idle poll 0:03 0.00% xfce4-session
21582 andrews 2 0 1212K 4128K sleep poll 0:02 0.00% xfce-mcs-mana
5398 root 2 0 3164K 628K idle netio 0:00 0.00% sshd
10688 andrews 28 0 392K 972K onproc - 0:00 0.00% top
22573 andrews 2 0 3164K 1064K sleep select 0:00 0.00% sshd
10292 root 2 0 156K 476K idle kqread 0:00 0.00% apmd
784 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
2644 andrews 10 0 220K 780K idle wait 0:00 0.00% xinit
26489 root 2 0 232K 464K idle select 0:00 0.00% inetd
1 root 10 0 396K 8K idle wait 0:00 0.00% init
515 root 2 0 240K 340K idle netio 0:00 0.00% syslogd
28389 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
19317 root 3 0 192K 476K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% getty
13301 root -6 0 148K 432K idle htplev 0:00 0.00% hotplugd
25241 andrews 18 0 476K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
10947 andrews 2 0 1772K 420K idle netio 0:00 0.00% Xorg
13201 andrews 18 0 472K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
18 andrews 2 0 276K 324K idle select 0:00 0.00% ssh-agent

AbiWord now unloaded and mysqlcc loaded from an aterm to produce the following (overcommited) process list.

load averages: 0.95, 0.67, 0.36 14:42:40
31 processes: 2 running, 28 idle, 1 on processor
CPU states: 13.4% user, 0.0% nice, 6.5% system, 0.0% interrupt, 80.1% idle
Memory: Real: 34M/57M act/tot Free: 1116K Swap: 7300K/128M used/tot

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE WAIT TIME CPU COMMAND
23173 andrews 30 0 4884K 7728K run - 0:42 9.67% xfce4-panel
9235 andrews 2 0 4212K 10M idle poll 0:10 9.23% mysqlcc
24097 andrews 29 0 5968K 6528K run - 0:23 5.96% Xorg
22779 andrews 2 0 628K 1592K sleep poll 0:05 0.59% xscreensaver
25483 andrews 2 0 1624K 6360K idle poll 0:05 0.05% xftaskbar4
3524 root 2 0 1096K 1044K sleep select 1:52 0.00% sendmail
15880 root 2 0 532K 448K idle select 0:14 0.00% sshd
15415 root 2 0 408K 492K idle select 0:06 0.00% cron
29168 andrews 2 0 1760K 5724K idle poll 0:05 0.00% xfwm4
15487 _syslogd 2 0 268K 516K sleep poll 0:08 0.00% syslogd
2985 andrews 2 0 1624K 4664K sleep poll 0:04 0.00% xfdesktop
3826 andrews 2 0 756K 4184K idle poll 0:04 0.00% xfce4-session
21582 andrews 2 0 1212K 4356K sleep poll 0:02 0.00% xfce-mcs-mana
10688 andrews 28 0 392K 968K onproc - 0:00 0.00% top
5398 root 2 0 3164K 628K idle netio 0:00 0.00% sshd
16568 andrews 2 0 560K 1904K idle select 0:00 0.00% aterm
22573 andrews 2 0 3164K 1064K sleep select 0:00 0.00% sshd
10292 root 2 0 156K 476K idle kqread 0:00 0.00% apmd
784 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
2644 andrews 10 0 220K 780K idle wait 0:00 0.00% xinit
3543 andrews 3 0 484K 400K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% ksh
1 root 10 0 396K 68K idle wait 0:00 0.00% init
26489 root 2 0 232K 464K idle select 0:00 0.00% inetd
515 root 2 0 240K 340K idle netio 0:00 0.00% syslogd
28389 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
19317 root 3 0 192K 476K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% getty
13301 root -6 0 148K 432K idle htplev 0:00 0.00% hotplugd
25241 andrews 18 0 476K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
10947 andrews 2 0 1772K 420K idle netio 0:00 0.00% Xorg
13201 andrews 18 0 472K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
18 andrews 2 0 276K 324K idle select 0:00 0.00% ssh-agent

mysqld_safe loaded from vt02, time taken before database responsive in mysqlcc GUI previously loaded.

Microdrive: 1 min 40 seconds
SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III: 55 seconds.

load averages: 0.85, 0.75, 0.45 14:45:34
33 processes: 32 idle, 1 on processor
CPU states: 11.6% user, 0.0% nice, 4.1% system, 0.0% interrupt, 84.4% idle
Memory: Real: 30M/56M act/tot Free: 1428K Swap: 17M/128M used/tot

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE WAIT TIME CPU COMMAND
23173 andrews 2 0 4884K 5432K sleep poll 1:01 10.21% xfce4-panel
24097 andrews 2 0 6008K 4272K sleep select 0:32 4.10% Xorg
9235 andrews 2 0 4496K 7916K sleep poll 0:16 2.98% mysqlcc
4900 _mysql 2 0 26M 10M sleep poll 0:03 0.05% mysqld
3524 root 2 0 1096K 704K sleep select 1:52 0.00% sendmail
15880 root 2 0 532K 8K idle select 0:14 0.00% sshd
15415 root 2 0 408K 392K idle select 0:06 0.00% cron
29168 andrews 2 0 1760K 1532K sleep poll 0:05 0.00% xfwm4
22779 andrews 2 0 628K 776K sleep poll 0:05 0.00% xscreensaver
25483 andrews 2 0 1624K 1328K sleep poll 0:05 0.00% xftaskbar4
15487 _syslogd 2 0 268K 280K sleep poll 0:08 0.00% syslogd
2985 andrews 2 0 1624K 1944K sleep poll 0:04 0.00% xfdesktop
3826 andrews 2 0 756K 1320K sleep poll 0:04 0.00% xfce4-session
21582 andrews 2 0 1212K 1404K sleep poll 0:02 0.00% xfce-mcs-mana
10688 andrews 28 0 392K 696K onproc - 0:01 0.00% top
19317 root 18 0 508K 12K idle pause 0:01 0.00% ksh
5398 root 2 0 3164K 8K idle netio 0:00 0.00% sshd
16568 andrews 2 0 560K 8K idle select 0:00 0.00% aterm
22573 andrews 2 0 3164K 608K sleep select 0:00 0.00% sshd
23810 root 18 0 496K 12K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
10292 root 2 0 156K 8K idle kqread 0:00 0.00% apmd
784 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
2644 andrews 10 0 220K 8K idle wait 0:00 0.00% xinit
3543 andrews 3 0 484K 8K idle ttyin 0:00 0.00% ksh
1 root 10 0 396K 8K idle wait 0:00 0.00% init
26489 root 2 0 232K 8K idle select 0:00 0.00% inetd
515 root 2 0 240K 8K idle netio 0:00 0.00% syslogd
28389 andrews 18 0 480K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
13301 root -6 0 148K 8K idle htplev 0:00 0.00% hotplugd
25241 andrews 18 0 476K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% ksh
10947 andrews 2 0 1772K 8K idle netio 0:00 0.00% Xorg
13201 andrews 18 0 472K 8K idle pause 0:00 0.00% sh
18 andrews 2 0 276K 8K idle select 0:00 0.00% ssh-agent

-Andy

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 08:37 AM

I'll do my pics soon which shows what I mean about the copper foil strap.

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 10:28 AM

Here's the card replacement walkthrough..

http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?act=S...t=0#entry129173

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 12:46 PM

Full results are now posted above... interestingly whilst idling (disk runs constantly) on OpenBSD the battery life is almost exactly the same with this card.

-Andy

fquindos

May 31 2006, 01:13 PM

Really strange. Always 4 hours exactly. I'm testing battery life in my 3200 this time with no CF card attached. I'm wondering if the battery is really empty and is not possible to start the unit without powering it. Or if after powering the unit just enough to start it, battery runs for hours (4 again?). This smells to "feature" :-)

QUOTE(iamasmith @ May 31 2006, 10:46 PM)

Full results are now posted above... interestingly whilst idling (disk runs constantly) on OpenBSD the battery life is almost exactly the same with this card.

-Andy

fquindos

May 31 2006, 10:43 PM

Well, no. There is not a magic limit of 4 hours uptime as I suspected yesterday late in the night :-) In fact, the last test I did gave me 6 hours! (Again almost exact, oh well). The difference with the last one was that the wifi card was not connected.

So that's what I did: I installed a crontab like this one in my user account:

* * * * * (/bin/date; /usr/bin/apm) >> /home/fquindos/up.txt

Then, with the yellow led off, I disconected the power supply and closed the lid. This morning the unit was off (surprise). Clicking the power button the green led went on for about a minute, but nothing appeared on the display. Not possible to start the unit without power supply. Examining the up.txt log file I found:

Battery state high, 100% remaining from May 31 22:57 to Jun 1 01:30.
Battery state high, 95% remaining at Jun 1 01:31.
Battery state high, 91% remaining from Jun 1 01:32 to Jun 1 01:36.
Battery state high, 100% remaining from Jun 1 01:37 to Jun 1 01:45. (Really).
Battery state high, 95% remaining from Jun 1 01:46 to Jun 1 01:48.
Battery state high, 100% remaining at Jun 1 01:49.
Battery state high, 95% remaining from Jun 1 01:50 to Jun 1 01:55.
Battery state high, 91% remaining at Jun 1 01:56.
Battery state high, 95% remaining from Jun 1 01:57 to Jun 1 01:59.
Battery state high, 91% remaining at Jun 1 02:00.
Battery state high, 95% remaining from Jun 1 02:01 to Jun 1 02:02.
Battery state high, 91% remaining from Jun 1 02:03 to Jun 1 04:51.
Battery state high, 87% remaining at Jun 1 04:52.
Battery state high, 83% remaining at Jun 1 04:53.
Battery state high, 75% remaining from Jun 1 04:54 to Jun 1 04:56.
Battery state high, 50% remaining from Jun 1 04:57 to Jun 1 04:59.
Battery state charging, 91% remaining at May 31 22:54. (Wait, I have to adjust date :-)).

iamasmith, do you test with a network card?

QUOTE(fquindos @ May 31 2006, 11:13 PM)

Really strange. Always 4 hours exactly. I'm testing battery life in my 3200 this time with no CF card attached. I'm wondering if the battery is really empty and is not possible to start the unit without powering it. Or if after powering the unit just enough to start it, battery runs for hours (4 again?). This smells to "feature" :-)

iamasmith

May 31 2006, 11:53 PM

Hmm, it may be related to the granularity of the apm driver and the possibility of apmd missing 'safe' levels if it does not suspend early.

Read apm(4) on the Zaurus. It mentions that the apm driver may be 25% off, sounds like Uwe didn't implement high granulrity on the Battery checks (might take a look at this). If this is indeed the case it may be possible that apm is suspending the unit at 25% rather than at a lower value.

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 1 2006, 12:45 AM

starting to play around now with apmd auto performance scaling to see if the 4 hour limit is effected by that.

and yes I'm using a Socket 10/100 Low Power Ethernet card. I wanted the disk activity to be 'background' and not contribute to the writes so I opted for a rudimentary test of running 'top' over an ssh connection and measuring uptime by seeing when it stalled.

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 1 2006, 01:09 AM

I started to consider the Bonnie++ test a little more... look at them again.

CODE

Bonnie++ disk performance test

Microdrive:

Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 2223 31 2297 11 1221 18 1939 93 2256 71 31.6 3
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1252 48 8291 100 3263 51 1279 45 8345 99 1622 26

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III:

Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 3162 98 3902 91 1498 95 1905 97 2414 99 100.5 17
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1329 43 9492 99 4118 64 1499 53 8321 95 2869 48

Note that in the tests on the squential read we are seeing high CPU utilisation - for the SanDisk card there is a higher level of CPU utilisation for a number of operations. A trend that indicated the performance bottleneck is becoming CPU bound rather than IO bound.

So I cranked up the Zaurus speed to 520Mhz and repeated the test..

CODE

Bonnie++ disk performance test

Microdrive with Zaurus at 416Mhz (default):

Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 2223 31 2297 11 1221 18 1939 93 2256 71 31.6 3
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1252 48 8291 100 3263 51 1279 45 8345 99 1622 26

SanDisk 4Gb Extreme III with Zaurus at 520Mhz:
Version 1.03 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
mungo.chili.lo 300M 3294 97 3960 96 1550 98 2059 97 2468 99 103.3 13
------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 1630 53 10054 100 4352 68 1824 58 9339 98 3111 45

Interestingly the CPU utilisation didn't go down.. this shows I think that the card is certainly capable of even higher transfers than the processor can handle but look at the difference in performance levels now.

startxfce4 now takes 53 seconds instead of the original Zaurus 1min 20s

-Andy

fquindos

Jun 1 2006, 02:47 AM

QUOTE(iamasmith @ Jun 1 2006, 11:09 AM)

...

So I cranked up the Zaurus speed to 520Mhz and repeated the test..

...

How did you this? Is overclocking the Zaurus a good idea?

iamasmith

Jun 1 2006, 03:23 AM

QUOTE(fquindos @ Jun 1 2006, 10:47 AM)

QUOTE(iamasmith @ Jun 1 2006, 11:09 AM)

...

So I cranked up the Zaurus speed to 520Mhz and repeated the test..

...

How did you this? Is overclocking the Zaurus a good idea?

Well it's not 'recommended' just as you would indemify yourself against recommending any slight gamble.

On OpenBSD check the sysctl.conf file and have a look for machdep.maxspeed this sets the upper speed. yes you can go to 624Mhz but it gets kinda hot running at that speed.

Note though that there is no physical difference in the PXA270 fitted to a 416Mhz device than the one fitted to a 624Mhz device - the processor can be safely clocked to these speeds - however, the manufacturer has several design factors for the device when they choose to clock at a specific speed. The issue is heat, power and clocking of other devices to meet the speed of the processor.

I'm actually running the device in performance scaling mode which means that I added -A to the startup flags of apmd in rc.conf. This slows the device when running on battery power if the CPU utilisation is low.

I will repeat the battery life test with this setting when the battery is fully charged again.

Check out apmd(8) for more detail on scaling.

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 1 2006, 04:14 AM

After the battery test I will attempt to provoke early failure (as mentioned TriSoft had a card fail after about a week). I figure that if I compile KDE on the device it will probably take about a week and provide a meaningful soak test.

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 1 2006, 01:36 PM

4 hours again with CPU scaling enabled.

ok, now to build KDE

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 5 2006, 12:46 AM

a few days into kde build now. The unit has built kdelibs and is now working on kdebase.

I have been running the unit at a constant 520Mhz with 512Mb swap (half on a partition and half on a file in the filesystem since I thought it needed a little more for this build).

The unit actually seems to be running cooler at 520Mhz with this card fitted than it ever did with the Microdrive which is encouraging.

No drive errors are present at the moment with the single exception of suspending/resuming, this still produces the 'operation failed, retrying' message that you get because suspend was instant and the rewrite had possibly been attempted before the card was ready. - This is the same as with the Microdrive so I'm not concerned at all about it.

-Andy

albertr

Jun 5 2006, 03:42 AM

QUOTE(iamasmith @ Jun 1 2006, 04:36 PM)

4 hours again with CPU scaling enabled.

ok, now to build KDE

-Andy

Interesting... Doesn't it look like CPU scaling not working correctly on OBSD or maybe it doesn't scale VCORE voltage? I'm running powernowd under linux 2.4.20 on the Z, and downscaling cpu freq and vcore voltage seems to greatly help to prolong battery life.
-albertr

iamasmith

Jun 6 2006, 02:45 AM

Kde 3.5 running on OpenBSD on the Zaurus...

Click to view attachment

I built (basically to soak test the CF card), kdelibs, kdebase and i18n-en_GB. It does actually work and it seems faster than I imagined that it would be even though it is almost constantly 20Mb overcommitted.

My feeling is that it isn't really viable to run KDE without a hardware mod on the memory but I thought I would post the picture for you to see.

-Andy

iamasmith

Jun 10 2006, 04:31 PM

Just a quick update... I'm 10 days into running with the new card, the Zaurus has been almost constantly on and almost all of this time it has been running constantly at 520mhz - it actually seems cooler running at 520Mhz with the new card than it did with the Microdrive at 416Mhz - I think I will keep it that way.

No errors... the thing seems bullet proof.. but I will report back if I have a failure.

-Andy

coreilly

Aug 30 2006, 04:00 PM

any news on the CF card in the Zaurus Andy???
still going good?

QUOTE(iamasmith @ Jun 10 2006, 08:31 PM)

Just a quick update... I'm 10 days into running with the new card, the Zaurus has been almost constantly on and almost all of this time it has been running constantly at 520mhz - it actually seems cooler running at 520Mhz with the new card than it did with the Microdrive at 416Mhz - I think I will keep it that way.

No errors... the thing seems bullet proof.. but I will report back if I have a failure.

-Andy

ins0mniaque

Aug 31 2006, 09:46 AM

I just ordered a Transcend CF 8GB 120x (they are incredibly cheap), and I intend to replace my MicroDrive with this. I'll post results as soon as I get the card...

EDIT:
I just received the card! And it's already in the Zaurus! Had trouble with the internal CF plastic cover screws, had to disconnect all ribbon cables to be able to apply pressure, and they are hell to reconnect ( at least with my big hands

).

I am installing OpenBSD 4.0-current on it right now... probably should have copied the OS from the MicroDrive, but a friend asked me how hard it was to install OpenBSD, perfect timing

Everything seems to work right now, and it seems like the same speed. The biggest noticable difference right now (apart from the 4 additional GB of storage space) is that you don't hear/feel the HD turning...

I will do some more tests this weekend...

ins0mniaque

Sep 3 2006, 12:31 PM

Just an additional note, when I opened my Zaurus (SL-C3000), it had the copper foil strap, but it was already unsoldered and disconnected (and no, it was not my fault)! And since the only soldering iron I had when I swaped the card was a ColdHeat Pro ( I was at work, and this iron, excuse my language, sucks balls... ), so I didn't even bother to resolder it.

Right now, it's been running non-stop @ 520 MHz, mounted with noatime and softdep, building ports for over 40 hours, and everything is still running fine...

iamasmith

Sep 9 2006, 02:27 AM

QUOTE(coreilly @ Aug 31 2006, 12:00 AM)

any news on the CF card in the Zaurus Andy???
still going good?

...

Yeah, my card is still error and trouble free.

and I have been running at 520Mhz pretty much since I fitted it.

(sorry, I haven't been checking the board as often... just started a new contract)

-Andy