[Soekris] Harddisk Slow

[Igor Sobrado]

In message <20070131224953.GA28913 at zephyr.spacehopper.org>, Stuart Henderson writes:
> On 2007/01/31 23:36, Igor Sobrado wrote:
> > Indeed, there are different computers and even operating systems
> > in this thread.  Certainly, the PowerEdge 350 is not comparable
> > to a net4801, even if the PowerEdge only requires a 75W power
> > supply unit.
> 
> around 15x the power used by a net4801.

Indeed, 75W is a very low power for current server requirements
but a lot of times the power required for a net4801.  I am happy
running my net4801 24/7; it is quiet, runs cold and do not require
a lot of power.  Excellent as a small server at a home or in some
environments where power availability is limited.

> > However, there is a new thread on misc@ (an OpenBSD mailing list)
> > about performance problems with pciide on the sparc64 architecture.
> 
> I suspect that's interrupt routing with PCI cards in the box,
> Sun don't document their chipsets sufficiently (or is that 'at all').
> On other sparc64 boxes, pciide works fine. (it may work fine on that
> one too with the nic unplugged).

That is one of the goals of the new ACPI development in OpenBSD,
improve interrupt routing.  I supposed that both systems were
sharing the same problem.

> Geode systems don't have a standard PCI setup. They do a lot in
> software on the CPU; a Geode 266 has much less i/o throughput than
> the average P5-200. That's not a problem though; they are for
> doing different things. The net4801 is a low-power system, it
> handles routing DSL/wireless/T1 achievable speeds ok (not a huge
> amount of headroom in some cases, but hey...look at cisco
> processor speed on boxes for doing similar things).

Obviously you know much better than me the architecture of the
soekris embedded computers.  Certainly, a net4801 has not been
designed with I/O performance in mind.  It is excellent as a
communications equipment or even as a small server (8 MB/s is
a nice throughput for a 5W computer!).

Indeed, Cisco processors are "slow" for current standards
but these routers and firewalls are the best ones on the market.

> They are good at it; silent, low-power, sensible number of NICs,
> decent remote-accessible BIOS. They are not screaming fast high-
> power I/O monsters. There are other boxes for that..

Agreed.

Igor.