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Author Topic: (SOLVED) Flash Drive observation  (Read 5288 times)

Offline Yankee

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(SOLVED) Flash Drive observation
« on: October 25, 2011, 03:28:39 PM »
Observation:

When I run LXDE on a Kingston 16 GB flash drive there is almost
no discernable difference in operation from running  it on my
/dev/sda1 SSD.

When I run LXDE on the same model flash drive but only 8 GB capacity
a definite slowdown is observed.  

Speed tests on both are over 18 MB/second read speed.  

Is there a way to determine the drive cache size ?   Kingston spec sheet
doesn't give that info.   If the 16 GB has a 64k cache and the 8 GB
only has a 8k cache, I'd have to place my bet that's the reason.   I've
read where flash drive caches were small, but I can't find the info today
and I'm trying to find out the reason for this major difference in operation
performance.   The 16 GB's are running fine, even with KDE, but of course,
they cost twice as much.

THX
« Last Edit: November 20, 2011, 04:36:38 PM by Ferdes Fides »
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2011, 03:34:50 PM »
lshw is just one possible way.

*-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2-Cache
             size: 512KiB
             capacity: 1MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies

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Offline Yankee

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2011, 03:54:53 PM »
Quote from: djohnston on October 25, 2011, 03:34:50 PM
lshw is just one possible way.

*-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2-Cache
             size: 512KiB
             capacity: 1MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies



Hi,

I actually ran that program thru the systeminfo program but
that info wasn't there.   I'll try it again then, maybe I missed it.

THX
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2011, 03:56:47 PM »
lshw | less

so you can pause the output.

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Offline AS

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2011, 04:09:53 PM »
Quote from: djohnston on October 25, 2011, 03:34:50 PM
lshw is just one possible way.

*-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2-Cache
             size: 512KiB
             capacity: 1MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies



lshw is actually listing only CPU(s) cache ... FF is searching info about USB flash drive cache ...  ;)
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Offline Yankee

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2011, 04:10:52 PM »
Quote from: djohnston on October 25, 2011, 03:34:50 PM
lshw is just one possible way.

*-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 6
             slot: L2-Cache
             size: 512KiB
             capacity: 1MiB
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies



Hi,

I'm reading that info as CPU info.    Nothing in the
lshw output regarding the cache or buffers for USB's that
are attached.

FF
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2011, 04:15:17 PM »
Sorry. Didn't catch that. Yeah, the disk descriptions for the hard drives don't show the cache size.

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Offline Yankee

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2011, 04:17:41 PM »
Quote from: as on October 25, 2011, 04:09:53 PM

lshw is actually listing only CPU(s) cache ... FF is searching info about USB flash drive cache ...  ;)


Hi,

What's the exact terminal command then.   I'm not
getting the right output with lshw -FF

Sorry,

Thanks a bunch.
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Offline Just17

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2011, 04:22:30 PM »
Quote from: Ferdes Fides on October 25, 2011, 04:17:41 PM
Quote from: as on October 25, 2011, 04:09:53 PM

lshw is actually listing only CPU(s) cache ... FF is searching info about USB flash drive cache ...  ;)


Hi,

What's the exact terminal command then.   I'm not
getting the right output with lshw -FF

Sorry,

Thanks a bunch.

FF .......  is you   :D  :D

...  an interesting observation about the speed of operation ......  looking forward to some indication of what is causing it  ;)
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Offline AS

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2011, 04:22:42 PM »
Quote from: Ferdes Fides on October 25, 2011, 04:17:41 PM
Quote from: as on October 25, 2011, 04:09:53 PM

lshw is actually listing only CPU(s) cache ... FF is searching info about USB flash drive cache ...  ;)


Hi,

What's the exact terminal command then.   I'm not
getting the right output with lshw -FF

Sorry,

Thanks a bunch.

LOL!  :D

my post was a direct reply to djohnstonpost, and I have used FF as a shorts of Ferdes Fides.

My apologies! ;)

AS
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2011, 04:25:23 PM »
hdparm will give you the info. Run it as root or you'll get device permission errors. This is what I did to show the info on one of my drives:

#hdparm -I /dev/sdc | grep cache/buffer
cache/buffer size  = 16384 KBytes

hdparm -I /dev/sdc will show you everyhting on the drive you're checking. Substitute your USB drive's designation.



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Offline AS

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2011, 04:28:17 PM »
Quote from: djohnston on October 25, 2011, 04:25:23 PM
hdparm will give you the info. Run it as root or you'll get device permission errors. This is what I did to show the info on one of my drives:

#hdparm -I /dev/sdc | grep cache/buffer
cache/buffer size  = 16384 KBytes

hdparm -I /dev/sdc will show you everyhting on the drive you're checking. Substitute your USB drive's designation.





Unfortunately hdparm doesn't appear to get the info when using my Kingston-G3 8GB:
Quote
# hdparm -I /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:  70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

ATA device, with non-removable media
Standards:
        Likely used: 1
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       0       0
        heads           0       0
        sectors/track   0       0
        --
        Logical/Physical Sector size:           512 bytes
        device size with M = 1024*1024:           0 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:           0 MBytes
        cache/buffer size  = unknown
Capabilities:
        IORDY not likely
        Cannot perform double-word IO
        R/W multiple sector transfer: not supported
        DMA: not supported
        PIO: pio0
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Offline Just17

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2011, 04:29:47 PM »
Code: [Select]
# hdparm -I /dev/sdm | grep cache/buffer
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]:  f0 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 26 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
        cache/buffer size  = unknown
:(
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2011, 04:34:06 PM »
What a gyp! Just tried my thumb drive with same result. Does a USB flash drive have a cache chip? I'm beginning to wonder.
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Offline Yankee

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Re: Flash Drive observation
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2011, 04:41:45 PM »
Quote from: djohnston on October 25, 2011, 04:34:06 PM
What a gyp! Just tried my thumb drive with same result. Does a USB flash drive have a cache chip? I'm beginning to wonder.


Well I'll just keep drilling and searching a little
bit till I solve this cache question.  Only possible
factor causing the slower speed I can think of.
The larger flash's must have larger caches but
I need to prove it !   See if a google search
has something relevant now.

Thanks for the response(s)


Ferdes Fides
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