[ale] Microcenter Free USB sticks

[arxaaron]

On 2011/02/21, at 08:06 , Greg Freemyer wrote:

> Define slow.
>
> I use usb a lot in both linux and windows.  Similar performance in  
> both.
>
> 1GB/min best case, uses rotating disk typically.
>
> Cheap thumb drives, way slower.
>
> These cheap thumb drives seem to require a erase cycle for every erase
> block update.  It makes them painfully slow.  Ie. A erase cycle takes
> longer than a head seek with rotating drives, so they are slower than
> a disk randomly seeking around the platter(s).
>
> I haven't tried to optimize the partition layout.  I've just assumed
> the thumb drive manufacturer does that.  If not, repartitioning with
> the partition starting on a erase block boundary should help.
>
> Greg
>

I'm with Greg on this one.  I see identical throughput on USB 2
devices with both Linux or Mac (given comparable CPU speeds*).
Choosing to never allow myself to become infected with windisease,
I can't say directly there, but the occasions where I've seen others
salvage M$ files to my USB keys there was nothing of "faster" about it.

My experience with the one cheap Microcenter 8MB USB key
I own** is that it seems faster at reading and writing than the
expensive 16MB Corsair I bought to use as a dedicated
Linux boot key.   Go figure.

Also of note is that USB 2.0 didn't really come into common use until
2003 / 2004, which is not very long ago at all.  The older e-mac G4
machines I was working with until a few months ago were USB 1.1.
The USB pass through connections on my older USB keyboards are
1.1 as well.  USB 1.1 is literally 1/40th the [max rated] speed of
USB 2.0 (12Mbps vs 480Mbps), so file transfer with 1.1 is painful.
Stupidly, there is no consistent external way to know whether
a USB port is version 1.1,  2.0 or 3.0, since informing end users
by marking the port type at the ports is not a requirement of
licensing the proprietary technology.

Fortunately all those older Macs also had built in ieee1394 Firewire,
400 which is a notably superior high speed serial transport because
it is _hardware_ arbitrated.  *USB is a software arbitrated design,
so processor speed and utilization can have a huge impact on
USB transfer speeds. One almost never sees the mythical
rated speeds of USB 2.0/3.0, even in the best conditions.

In comparison, Firewire 400 operates consistently at it's rated
speed of 400Mbs (800 Mbs for 1394b / Firewire 800) at all times.
You can daisy chain multiple Firewire 400/800 devices and all
will share the bandwidth without any bus arbitration losses.
Throughput does not fluctuate with CPU usage, so Firewire is
a vastly preferable transport for digital audio and video media
where uninterrupted high volume data streams are common.
Firewire 400 and 800 also use different connectors, so it easy
to know which you are dealing with. Firewire 800 is backwards
compatible to 400 when connected with a simple 800<->400
cable, though the bus speed will be limited by the 400 devices.

Last note is that running through USB hubs can slow things down
as well  (ref <http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm#9>)

peace
aaron


**My Microcenter USB key looked like it had even survived
yesterday's washer / dryer cycle as well... but it JUST died as
I was copying off the contents.  Bummer, but the up side is that
now I have an excuse for a Microcenter run!  :-)



> On 2/21/11, Geoffrey Myers <lists at serioustechnology.com> wrote:
>> Chuck Green wrote:
>>> I've heard from many people that run linux off a usb stick that it  
>>> can
>>> take 2-3 minutes to boot.  I havent had that bad of experience  
>>> though.
>>
>> My experiences with usb under linux is, it's bloody slow.  I don't  
>> get
>> it.  From cheap usb sticks to pricey external drives.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 02/18/2011 05:11 PM, Chris Fowler wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 2011-02-18 at 17:00 -0500, Calvin Harrigan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What did you expect for free?  Seriously though USB stick speed  
>>>>> vary
>>>>> significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Yea, I know.
>>>>
>>>> I'm putting a persistent UNR system on this stick for a friend.  It
>>>> seems to be 2.0 but it is not very responsive.  I guess being on  
>>>> a slow
>>>> stick and being a live image makes it worse.