4 ms·

Missing: SD card performance benchmark. Previous models could only read about 20 MB/s or so, while the modern SD cards can do 10x (maybe even more) that. Is th

Missing: SD card performance benchmark. Previous models could only read about 20 MB/s or so, while the modern SD cards can do 10x (maybe even more) that. Is there any improvement in this? It's pretty important as RPi usually boots off it.

jonhendry18 7y ago
You can boot off a USB drive.
- lloeki 7y ago
  IIRC bootloader and kernel have to be on SD card so you always boot from there but can easily pivot to the USB drive for the root partition.
  - dchest 7y ago
    Nope, it can boot from USB without SD card.
    - dchest 7y ago
      Correction: it seems like RPi4 doesn't boot from USB or Ethernet yet; they will release a firmware update to turn it on. "Support for these additional bootmodes will be added in the future via optional bootloader updates. The current schedule is to release PXE boot first, then USB boot." https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/booteeprom.md https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...
  - robinwohlers 7y ago
    Not any more! As of the Pi3 you can even netboot! https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/net_tutorial.md https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
dchest 7y ago
In the video here https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/raspberry-pi-4-specs-benchmarks/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/raspberry-pi-4-specs-bench... they said they doubled the SD card performance.
- vardump 7y ago
  Finally! First RPi SD card performance upgrade ever. Doubled, so I guess around 40 MB/s. Still a far cry from fastest SD cards that can both read and write over 250 MB/s. Hopefully RPi4+ will improve on this. :-)
  - benj111 7y ago
    People have spent however many years since the release of the last pi suggesting improvements. It's announced today offering basically everything that people were asking for, and you are already planning for the next one? <captainpickardfacepalm.gif>
    - vardump 7y ago
      Huh? I'm not allowed to hope for future improvements? I'm very happy for RPi4 SD improvements. Until now, RPi has had same lacking ~20 MB/s SD performance from the start. AFAIK, this is the first time ever there's been any hardware improvement in this regard. I've had a microsdxc card with 90 MB/s reads and 80 MB/s writes since early 2014. Some current cards can read & write more than 250 MB/s, so there's still room for improvement. As 95-99% of all RPis boot from (micro) SD and use it as primary storage, I'd say SD performance is a rather fundamental (often ignored) aspect of RPi performance.
      - benj111 7y ago
        "Huh? I'm not allowed to hope for future improvements" Of course you can. My tongue was very much in cheek :) ...but still, it was announced today, savour the moment :P
vardump 7y ago
Found from the new docs: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bcm2711/rpi_DATA_2711_1p0_preliminary.pdf https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry... "The Pi4B has a dedicated SD card socket which suports 1.8V, DDR50 mode (at a peak bandwidth of 50 Megabytes / sec). In addition, a legacy SDIO interface is available on the GPIO pins."

jonhendry18 7y ago

You can boot off a USB drive.

lloeki 7y ago
IIRC bootloader and kernel have to be on SD card so you always boot from there but can easily pivot to the USB drive for the root partition.
- dchest 7y ago
  Nope, it can boot from USB without SD card.
  - dchest 7y ago
    Correction: it seems like RPi4 doesn't boot from USB or Ethernet yet; they will release a firmware update to turn it on. "Support for these additional bootmodes will be added in the future via optional bootloader updates. The current schedule is to release PXE boot first, then USB boot." https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/booteeprom.md https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...
- robinwohlers 7y ago
  Not any more! As of the Pi3 you can even netboot! https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/net_tutorial.md https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

dchest 7y ago

In the video here https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/raspberry-pi-4-specs-benchmarks/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/raspberry-pi-4-specs-bench... they said they doubled the SD card performance.

vardump 7y ago
Finally! First RPi SD card performance upgrade ever. Doubled, so I guess around 40 MB/s. Still a far cry from fastest SD cards that can both read and write over 250 MB/s. Hopefully RPi4+ will improve on this. :-)
- benj111 7y ago
  People have spent however many years since the release of the last pi suggesting improvements. It's announced today offering basically everything that people were asking for, and you are already planning for the next one? <captainpickardfacepalm.gif>
  - vardump 7y ago
    Huh? I'm not allowed to hope for future improvements? I'm very happy for RPi4 SD improvements. Until now, RPi has had same lacking ~20 MB/s SD performance from the start. AFAIK, this is the first time ever there's been any hardware improvement in this regard. I've had a microsdxc card with 90 MB/s reads and 80 MB/s writes since early 2014. Some current cards can read & write more than 250 MB/s, so there's still room for improvement. As 95-99% of all RPis boot from (micro) SD and use it as primary storage, I'd say SD performance is a rather fundamental (often ignored) aspect of RPi performance.
    - benj111 7y ago
      "Huh? I'm not allowed to hope for future improvements" Of course you can. My tongue was very much in cheek :) ...but still, it was announced today, savour the moment :P

vardump 7y ago

Found from the new docs: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bcm2711/rpi_DATA_2711_1p0_preliminary.pdf https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry... "The Pi4B has a dedicated SD card socket which suports 1.8V, DDR50 mode (at a peak bandwidth of 50 Megabytes / sec). In addition, a legacy SDIO interface is available on the GPIO pins."