Peopple seem to judge the Sam on the CPU but it does have a lot of good hardware my A1 doesn't have and it's useful right on board.

But, I just did a test and I think the Sam is slower than it should be, from my first experiments.

I used DiskMonTools to do a simple speed test. Okay it's 68k but I don't know what OS4 software there is that can do a speed test with such ease. Nor OS4 speed testers that have a GUI.

The tests:
1. Harddrive.
2. CDRW disc.
3. USB flash drive.

I tested each to get a basic speed. I have reported the maximum achieved. And as a comparison also have included my best A1 results as well. All are average best speeds. My A1 has a Sii-0680 IDE controller.

Sam:
1. 7.5 MB/s.
2. 4 MB/s.
3. 900 KB/s.

A1XE:
1. 14 MB/s.
2. 2.8 MB/s.
3. 900 KB/s.

As you can see the Sam lags behind in the HD speed. By about half! This is worrying as the Sam has SATA which should give 40 MB/s in a proper DMA setup. The CDROM is probably newer than mine and can't be used for any real speed accessing an optical disc. But you will notice the USB speed is no better than my A1!

I thought the San has superior USB with USB 2.0 mentioned in the specs. I know it wasn't the whole USB hardware but 2.0 was in there some where. Perhaps it is missing a 2.0 driver? This does seem silly as the Deneb classic USB card has it AFAIK. So why not OS4?

While on the subbject can someone please do the same test with a Deneb card. It would be interesting to see the result.

@Hypex

There is no usb 2.0 drivers yet. Thats why you get the same speed.

_________________
I'm an antique. Don't light my fuse

@Hypex

Hmm... did you switch to DMA mode for Sam, or you done the test in the default mode (PIO)?

_________________

@Antique
USB2 drivers does not affect non USB hard drives.
7.5MB/s is very slow for the specifications of the Sam
A low end PII/PIII with dma enabled should easily be able to push at least 15-20MB/s
Also the sam has much more modern ide interface, so it should in theory be much faster.

Last edited by Tomas on 28-Jan-2009 at 03:30 PM.

@Hypex

Why don't you use a more modern tool to test HD speed?
For example scsispeed from OS4Depot.

5.Work:Utilities> scsispeed-4.2 DRIVE sii3114ide.device:0 FAST BUF1=8192 BUF2=16384 BUF3=32768 BUF4=65536
MKSoft ScsiSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
AmigaOS4 port by Stéphane Guillard
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: sii3114ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 52561100 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 69950668 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 77874790 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 78007500 bytes/sec

This with an old 80Gb SATA HD on a Sam 667 Mhz

_________________
Massimiliano Tretene, ACube Systems, Soft3

SAMSUNG SP1614C 160GB:

CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: sii3114ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 35479552 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 51390873 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 51450675 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 49266688 bytes/sec

_________________
SAM440EP MINI-ITX 667MHz - 512MB
SAM440EP FLEXATX 800MHz - 512MB - R9250 256MB

@m3x

Those speeds are over twice that of 250GB IDE Seagate I have in my A1XE.

I got these numbers:

MKSoft ScsiSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
AmigaOS4 port by Stéphane Guillard
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: sii3114ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 42631168 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 62909644 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 84767539 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 94984601 bytes/sec

_________________
I'm an antique. Don't light my fuse

On my Sam440ep with a 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 (32MB cache) :

> scsispeed DRIVE sii3114ide.device:0 FAST BUF1=8192 BUF2=16384 BUF3=32768 BUF4=65536
MKSoft ScsiSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
AmigaOS4 port by Stéphane Guillard
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: sii3114ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 61731225 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 81892147 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 97050624 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 107269324 bytes/sec


102MB/sec aint bad :)

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

On a µA1 in combo with a (PATA) WD Blue Caviar I got these results:

6.Extracts:Scsispeed4> scsispeed DRIVE a1ide.device:0 FAST BUF1=8192 BUF2=16384 BUF3=32768 BUF4=65536
MKSoft ScsiSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
AmigaOS4 port by Stéphane Guillard
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: a1ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 25497600 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 28993126 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 33526579 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 11629363 bytes/sec
6.Extracts:Scsispeed4>

I have to make do with it as I only have one Amiga...

OldFart

_________________
More then three levels of indigestion and you're scroomed!

@OldFart
Are you sure your last value (11629363 bytes/sec) isn't missing a digit, because the previous value was 3 times as large? Not to mention 11MB/sec is kinda low (I probably got that kind of figure with SCSI on my BlizzardPPC A1200).

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@ChrisH

Quote:

Are you sure your last value (11629363 bytes/sec) isn't missing a digit, because the previous value was 3 times as large?

I simply copied & pasted the results here, just like all others here.

I indeed never had a feeling of the µA1 being a maginificent speed monstruosity when it comes to disk speed. I found the figures kinda low too. But I'll simply redo the test.

OldFart

EDIT:
And here are the results:
New Shell process 6
6.Extracts:Scsispeed4> scsispeed DRIVE a1ide.device:0 FAST BUF1=8192 BUF2=16384 BUF3=32768 BUF4=65536
MKSoft ScsiSpeed 4.2 Copyright © 1989-92 MKSoft Development
AmigaOS4 port by Stéphane Guillard
------------------------------------------------------------
CPU: 68020 AmigaOS Version: 53.5
Device: a1ide.device:0


Testing with a 8192 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 23985356 bytes/sec

Testing with a 16384 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 28662988 bytes/sec

Testing with a 32768 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 32677888 bytes/sec

Testing with a 65536 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.
Read from SCSI: 11393433 bytes/sec
6.Extracts:Scsispeed4>

It looks like the machine is getting tired. So am I. I'm gonna inspect the inside of my eyelids.

See you in the morrow.

OldFart

Last edited by OldFart on 28-Jan-2009 at 10:12 PM.

_________________
More then three levels of indigestion and you're scroomed!

@Hypex

Unless you eliminate the differences between the drives on the two machines, any comparison is worthless.

You must use the *same drives* for comparisons. Can't connect the one drive to both machines? Then get two drives that are mechanically identical, at least.

_________________
cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@Phantom

Quote:

Hmm... did you switch to DMA mode for Sam, or you done the test in the default mode (PIO)?

I haven't myself, it's default AFAIK. It is a pre-installed machine by ACube so I'd assumed they would have set it up to run at DMA. However, I don't know how to check/set DMA on the Sam. It doesn't have UBoot prefs AFAIK so it can be hard to check.

@Hypex

Quote:

However, I don't know how to check/set DMA on the Sam.

Idetool command on OS4 or Uboot command line. I think same settings should work for Sam as for A1.

_________________
Rock lobster bit me. My Workbench has always preferences. X1000 + AmigaOS4.1 FE
"Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." -Seymour Cray

@m3x

Quote:

Why don't you use a more modern tool to test HD speed? For example scsispeed from OS4Depot.

Because I want a modern tool that has a GUI. So far I haven't found any. I read about these OS4 ports of old tools that for some reason don't have the GUI that was in the original. Then read the GUI is coming but that was four years ago.

This is the year 2009, I am over messing around in the CLI, I just want to click on my drive and press a speed gadget. Not mess with parameters and device names.

I only use the CLI if I need too or with programming. I thought the Amiga was about using a GUI. Well it was when I got my A500 in ~1987. Now it seems OS4 is about using commands in the shell and going back to the dark ages like a Linux terminal. Please! Let's modernise OS4! Isn't that what OS4 was all about? Modernising Amiga? Okay that's been coming from me for a long time.

Last edited by Hypex on 29-Jan-2009 at 12:46 AM.

@tonyw

Well I am comparing an IDE drive with a SATA drive regardless of the exact drive specifications. But my aim was to do a basic test on performance. Which I didi.

@Antique

Quote:

There is no usb 2.0 drivers yet. Thats why you get the same speed.

Hahaha. The Sam USB is no better than mine.

Okay so when the 2.0 drivers come out I won't be laughing anymore?

That said, what USB chip does the Sam have? And is there a PCI USB card with the same chipset A1 users could make use of in the future?

@m3x

Quote:

This with an old 80Gb SATA HD on a Sam 667 Mhz

Which one (which HD, that is)?

@Hypex

If you want to do a proper comparison:
- use the same drive in both machines (as others have said)
- enable the maximum DMA mode on both machines
- use the same file-system on both machines (e.g., SFS is noticeably faster than FFS2)

Hans

_________________
http://hdrlab.org.nz/ - Amiga OS 4 projects, programming articles and more. Home of the RadeonHD driver for Amiga OS 4.x project.
https://keasigmadelta.com/ - More of my work.