1 Topic by Erbs Bischof (edited by Erbs Bischof 2012-02-02 11:03:11)

  • Registered: 2012-01-08
  • Posts: 35

Topic: Firewire 800 express card question...

My Fireface 800 is connected to a trusty old notebook via the firewire 400 port.
Everything works beautifully, latencies down to ~3 - 6ms, stable as can be.
(Acer 9920, Vista 32, 4Gb RAM, Intel Core Duo T7300)

Will an express card Firewire 800 connection improve anything for me?
Even shorter latencies, less CPU load etc.

Since my notebook has Firewire 400 on board, will the expresscard turn it into a
fully adequate Firewire 800 machine? Would I profit from it?

(I'm aware of the TI chipset necessity)

Thank you all kindly for your input.

Erbs

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,781

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

A FW 800 connection will not make the FF800 "faster". It would only help if you wanted to connect two...


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2012-01-08
  • Posts: 35

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

Alright, got it. That's what i needed to know.

Thanks for your quick response,

Erbs

  • bonis
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Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

Hum...
A FW800 connection not improve the latency times ?

why ?

Bonis

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  • Knut
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Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

A FW800 connection not improve the latency times ?

No. It has a higher data transfer capacity. The data travels with the same speed.

best regards
Knut

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,781

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

What he said...

An old Beetle will only do 120 km/h, regardless of whether the highway has 4 or 8 lanes...



Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2012-01-08
  • Posts: 35

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

RME Support wrote:

What he said...

An old Beetle will only do 120 km/h, regardless of whether the highway has 4 or 8 lanes...



Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Condsidering this analogy:
The advantage of 8 lanes would be 8 beetles being able to arrive at the same time instead of just 4.
So, even a maxed out data flow in my single FF800 could never make use of the 8 lanes, it would take addional FF800s for that. (additional beetles)

Am I on the right track, there?

8 Reply by bonis (edited by bonis 2012-02-02 23:27:33)

  • bonis
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  • Registered: 2012-02-02
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Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

So with 2 firewire 400 cards on the same system is the same thing to 1 firewire 800 card ?
I do not seem so much right...:roll

(Please, read the XIO2213B Datashet of TI (Texas)

view this tests :

Over FW800:

Disk Test 49.10
Sequential 89.08
Uncached Write 109.94 67.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 91.87 51.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 57.87 16.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 130.84 65.76 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 33.89
Uncached Write 11.79 1.25 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 66.68 21.35 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 91.38 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 136.74 25.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Over FW400:

Disk Test 41.54
Sequential 55.36
Uncached Write 49.25 30.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 61.06 34.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 46.04 13.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 72.22 36.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 33.24
Uncached Write 11.96 1.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 61.57 19.71 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.20 0.64 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 106.14 19.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Over USB 2.0:

Disk Test 16.11
Sequential 12.15
Uncached Write 24.07 14.78 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 28.75 16.26 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 4.45 1.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 35.52 17.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 23.92
Uncached Write 8.81 0.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.89 12.77 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 69.04 0.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 70.78 13.13 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Bonis

www.bonisaudio.com

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  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,781

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

Erbs Bischof wrote:

Condsidering this analogy:
The advantage of 8 lanes would be 8 beetles being able to arrive at the same time instead of just 4.
So, even a maxed out data flow in my single FF800 could never make use of the 8 lanes, it would take addional FF800s for that. (additional beetles)
Am I on the right track, there?

Bingo...

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,781

Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

bonis, these numbers mean very little in this context, if at all. The maximum values in sequential reads/writes do show you that FW800 has higher bandwidth, but not "speed". As you will see, FW 800 does not help at all as far as the random r/w is concerned.

The disk apparently provides higer data rates than the FW400 interface can handle within its bandwidth. However, even all channels of a FF800 do not reach this bandwidth limit.



Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

11 Reply by bonis (edited by bonis 2012-02-03 00:32:16)

  • bonis
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Re: Firewire 800 express card question...

RME Support wrote:

bonis, these numbers mean very little in this context,

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Not true , if see the result of random test, the bandwith is the same in 800 and 400. (very small differences)
This gives the confirmation that your answer is correct, the FW800 is not  LIGHT PEAK cool

Thank you

Bonis

in random test the USB 3.0 ....all smoke ....no fire  :-O

....see this....

Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB (USB 2.0)     Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB (USB 3.0)
Sequential Read     33.1 MB/s                            151.9 MB/s
Sequential Write     26.9 MB/s                            151.2 MB/s
Random Read     0.30 MB/s                            0.30 MB/s
Random Write     0.93 MB/s                            0.93 MB/s

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