Messages

1

General Discussion / Flash I/o Performance Database?

« on: April 01, 2006, 07:20:20 am »

Hmmm. The results were the following:

Video: divx5, 640x480, avi, 12.5 fps, 350 kbit/s
Audio: mp3, 64 kbit/s, mono, 48 kHz
Length: ~143 s, ~7.2 MB
Kernel: Tetsu 18a for C3000
Mplayer opts: -benchmark -nosound

Played from CF (SanDisk Ultra 1 GB)
91.888 s

Played from SD (Kingston MMC Plus 256 MB)
91.614 s

I would say, the results are exactly the same. The most important thing is the decoding of the video. Remember: The transfer of the 7 MB video takes 2-3 s from CF/SD to memory. That's nothing compared to the 90 s overall time.

Without the -nosound option the time is 144s for 143s video. This means that the Z cannot handle more video data than included in my test file.

After all I would say: It doesn't make a difference what kind of card you use for video playing.

2

General Discussion / Flash I/o Performance Database?

« on: March 30, 2006, 12:27:35 pm »

there are major limitations with the CF slot on the intel Xscales, mainly they share the bus betwwen the 2 CF cards (on the cxx00 series) the flash and memory, so you get a copy from CF then a copy to memory then a copy to the second card, teseting on others is the same but you end up with a copy to flash instead of to CF at the end, the flash bieng the slowest

USB should be 12Mbit * 80% max or 9.6Mbit or 1200KByte/s (Bulk class transfers are not more than 80% of system bandwidth)

CF max speed on an intel Xscale is 16MB IF you only acsess the CF card and not anything else, eg memory (you basically have to run from cache

SD is a bit better, it tops out at a max of 25MB/s however at the moment as far as i can tell (not sure about a 2.6 kernel) the cards are booted as mmc cards so you dont get the full speed

the advantage in SD and USB is the dont hog the MEM bus so you can recive data and read memory at the same time
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That may be right. But I tested the transfer speed from CF internal (instead of the MD) to CF external with 2 SanDisk Ultra II in both directions: ~950-1050 kB/s. And CF internal/extrenal to SD (Kingston MMC plus): ~750 kB/s. The native speed CF/SD to /dev/null was 2500/1600 kB/s.

The mem bus-hog doesn't seem to be so important (in this special case).

3

General Discussion / Flash I/o Performance Database?

« on: March 28, 2006, 02:38:41 pm »

The SD slot is max 1700 kB/s. Perhaps the new Sharp SD driver performs better.

4

General Discussion / Flash I/o Performance Database?

« on: March 28, 2006, 06:29:57 am »

Have a look at http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_pag...p?cid=6007-6133

But don't expect too much. According to speed tests posted in the forum and my own tests, the Zauri can't transfer data faster than about 3000 kB/s even with fast SanDisk Ultra II-cards. Don't buy a too expensive card.

If you're interested: I accumulated the speed infos I had found into a text file. And: I've just ordered a SanDisk 4 GB Standard (Zaurus) und a 4 GB Extreme III (camera) card. I will perform a speed test with these cards, too.

5

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Sl-c3000 Mount Points

« on: April 13, 2005, 04:07:57 am »

/etc is linked from /home: /home/etc -> /etc

/home is mounted from /dev/mtdblock3 type jffs2 (rw, noatime)

/ is mounted from /dev/mtdblock2 type jffs2 (ro, noatime)

Good luck!

6

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Exchanged Microdrive With Flash Card (c3000)

« on: April 13, 2005, 04:03:37 am »

After two days a short appendix:

The handling of the C3000 has really improved with the microdrive-exchange. It seems to be much quicker. Key strokes and stick inputs are answered immediately without the spin-up time lag. Great!

It feels like an well-improved C3000. Never again a microdrive!

7

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Exchanged Microdrive With Flash Card (c3000)

« on: April 13, 2005, 03:59:59 am »

Have you done any battery tests yet? Im sure folks are interested in the results.

I didn't measure battery life. I don't even know how to perform a test (which test-conditions?)

Comparison by specs:

Hitachi: 305 mA for write, 16 mA for idle
SanDisk: 50-65 mA for read/write, 100 mA read/write peak, 1 mA idle

The Sharp battery has 1800 mAh (?). If you use often your microdrive for data transfers its power consumption will obviously reduce battery live significantly. A flash card saves a lot of power.

8

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Exchanged Microdrive With Flash Card (c3000)

« on: April 13, 2005, 03:52:31 am »

check to make sure there isint a swap parition on the flash card as it could kill your flash card much quicker.
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The microdrive has an error rate (non-recoverable) of less than 1 per 10^13 bits transferred. It can be started and stopped (at 40° C) for about 300.000 times.

A SandDisk Ultra has a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1.000.000 hours. And an error rate of less than 1 per 10^14 bits read(!?) for non-recoverable errors and of 1 per 10^20 bits read for errorneous corrections.

Both have an error management. The flash card reads every written byte to compare it with the original value. For errors there are "spare" bytes.

And don't forget: the microdrive spins down and up very often. 300.000 start/stop cycles seem not to be very much.

I think a flash card is a better solution. Even for swap devices (!?)

9

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Exchanged Microdrive With Flash Card (c3000)

« on: April 11, 2005, 02:24:48 pm »

First, the most interesting result:

My C3000 is faster than ever. Every application starts up quicker and there are no more spin-up times when the microdrive has felt asleep.

Compare yourself:

Reboot until the sound can be heard: microdrive 142s, SanDisk Ultra II 120s (-15%).

Starting Opera after having rebooted until the error message appears (startpage cannot be found): microdrive 16s, flash 10s (-37%)

It's really impressive! But the most impressive thing is, that there's no time lag after the microdrive would have fallen asleep.

For anyone who's interested:

I've just exchanged the 4 GB microdrive with a SanDisk Ultra II card. It's easy:

1. Have a look at the internal-pictures from the 3000: Click here!

2. Remove the Hitachi microdrive

3. Insert the microdrive into your PC and have a look at the partitions, assuming the cf card is /dev/sda:

Code: [Select]

fdisk /dev/sda
4. Copy the partitions to your PC-HDD:

Code: [Select]

dd if=/dev/sda1 of=hda1 For sda2 and sda3 do the same. It's a good backup, anywhere.

5. Insert your flash card into your PC and create new partitions on it. I think it's a good idea to let the system partition (hda1) exactly as it is: about 100 MB. Partition 2 (ext3) can be changed in size. Partition 3 is the left-space-device (vfat).

6. Copy microdrive-partition 1 to the flash card:

Code: [Select]

dd if=hda1 of=/dev/sda1
7. Copy the remaining partitions to the flash card. That could be done as above with the dd-command, but the new partitions must be equal in size. Or you can mount the old-partitions, e. g.

Code: [Select]

mount -o loop,ro hda2 /mnt/OLD/ and copy the files to the newly formated partition sda2:

Code: [Select]

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2 And now copy the files. The same has to be done for hda3.

8. Insert the flash card into the Zaurus.

9. Reboot!

10. Wonder why the Zaurus is that fast.

If someone has problems with one step, feel free to ask: I will help as good as I can.

And don't forget: I don't take any responsibilitiy for your Z. Anyone following my instructions is responsible for the results. I can only say: My Z works better than ever.  

10

C1000/3x00 Hardware / About Intel Pxa27x-processor And Usb-capabilities

« on: March 22, 2005, 04:04:54 pm »

Without power supply.

The battery is 3.7 V too.

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C1000/3x00 Hardware / About Intel Pxa27x-processor And Usb-capabilities

« on: March 22, 2005, 03:49:05 pm »

Errors everywhere:

I've taken my Z and meassured the USB bus-power. And ... 5 V.

That means: the PXA27x doesn't provide 5 V. But if someone (Sharp) uses the processor and wants to use USB in a device, one must take the 5 V from an other source. Sharp found such a source :-)

But that doesn't answer the question how much max. current is on the USB bus. Perhaps some 1.8 inch devices work.

12

C1000/3x00 Hardware / About Intel Pxa27x-processor And Usb-capabilities

« on: March 22, 2005, 03:33:58 pm »

It shouldn't surprise you that a desktop HDD's power consumption is not supported by the Zaurus...

@bluedevils: You're right. But I thought it could be possible to power an external 1.8 inch harddrive with the Zaurus, not a desktop HDD. Remember: current 1.8 inch drives need only 1.2 W for operation. That's really not much and compared to the Hitachi Microdrive 3K4 which needs already about 1.0 W, 1.2 W is really impressive!

@omega: I didn't see anything with 5 V. But I 've just looked at the processor's specs.

One more thought: Some drives, e. g. Toshiba MK3006GAL, need just 3.3 V and about 1.2 W. Perhaps  they can be powered with an other power source from the Z, e. g. the IO-port. but I don't know what max. current is provided by it.

By the way, I've decided to buy an external 2.5 inch drive with an external power source. That works without any problems. It can be powered with the same external power supply which I use for the Z. I think that's a good solution.

13

C1000/3x00 Hardware / About Intel Pxa27x-processor And Usb-capabilities

« on: March 21, 2005, 07:22:46 pm »

Hi!

I've just read in the Intel PXA27x-specification. And there are some interesting things about the USB-capabilities of the processor:

USB-client: USB 1.1 with max. 12 Mbps

USB-host: USB 1.1 with max. 12 Mbps. The host provides 3.3 V to clients but the normally necessary 5 V for HDD or something "bus-powered" are not provided. And, the 3.3 V output is combined with a max. current of 25 mA and therefore 82.5 mW. That's much too less for a harddisk. According to Toshiba, Hitachi, Seagate and Fujitsu, current 1.8 inch harddisks need at least 1.2 W for spin-up.

Intel (see ftp://download.intel.com/design/pca/appli...als/2800002.pdf and ftp://download.intel.com/design/pca/appli.../28000502.pdf):

The +5 V VBUS source from USB host controller, which must be available for bus-powered peripherals, must be supplied from an external source, but it is not part of the PXA27x processor silicon.

I don't think Sharp added some additional USB functions which were not provided by the PXA270.

It's too bad, I really thought I could use an external HDD without power supply.

14

C1000/3x00 General discussions / SL-C3000 questions

« on: March 20, 2005, 10:21:04 am »

To the speed of the built-in Microdrive:

I've just compared the speed of the built-in Microdrive to an external CF-card (Sandisk Ultra II 512 MB).

Write-test:

Code: [Select]

TESTDD=/mnt/cf/test-dd
date; dd if=/dev/zero/ of=$TESTDD bs=1M count=256; date
TESTDD=/hdd3/test-dd
date; dd if=/dev/zero/ of=$TESTDD bs=1M count=256; date
Read-test:

Code: [Select]

TESTDD=/mnt/cf/test-dd
date; cp $TESTDD /dev/null; date
TESTDD=/hdd3/test-dd
date; cp $TESTDD /dev/null; date
The results (read - write):
Microdrive (2.080 kB/s - 1.986 kB/s)
CF Sandisk Ultra II (2.221 kB/s - 2.730 kB/s)

Of course, this test doesn't meassure the random-access-speed!

Nice infos about CF-card speed can be found at http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_pag...p?cid=6007-6133.

It would be very interesting how fast the internal RAM-disk of the other models is, e. g. C860, C1000!

Did anyone change the C3000-Microdrive into a CF-card? Does that show speed improvements?

15

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Jmap On 3000

« on: March 20, 2005, 05:25:34 am »

After having installed Java, jmap runs. But it runs very slow on the SL-C3000. And I don't know why, perhaps it's the 4 times larger screen.

I don't use it any more, I think ImagePad can be used much better for map viewing because it's much faster.