Hi, I am just testing the new Soekris net6501-70 with Debian 6.0.3 (Kernel 2.6.32-5). I had a net5501-70 before and upgraded to be able to perform gigabit routing.
During testing, I also measured the network throughput with "iperf" and experienced the following: - When measuring the throughput between my desktop PC and the net6501, I get approx. 290MBits/sec. It is interesting that "iperf" has 100% CPU usage during this test (measured via top). On the desktop PC, iperf consumes approx. 10%. - When using the net6501 as a router, the throughput is also at 290Mbits/sec, but "top" is stuck during the test on the net6501, the machine is completely stuck. On the net5501-70, throughput is at ~ 95Mbits/sec (as it has no gigabit ethernet) and the CPU loads are similar, but approx 1/3rd of the above (30% with iperf). Measuring the CPU load during routing seems not to be possible via top. Suspecting the CPU, I decided to do some CPU testing, using nbench (nbench uses one core only!). Below are the results / comparisons for my desktop PC, the net6501-70 and net5501-70: ===========================LINUX DATA BELOW========================== CPU : Dual GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 1862MHz L2 Cache : 2048 KB OS : Linux 2.6.37.6-0.5-desktop C compiler : gcc version 4.3.2 (Debian 4.3.2-1.1) libc : libc-2.7.so MEMORY INDEX : 16.325 INTEGER INDEX : 15.627 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 24.542 Baseline (LINUX) : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38 =========================LINUX DATA BELOW============================ CPU : GenuineIntel Genuine Intel(R) CPU @ 1.60GHz 1600MHz L2 Cache : 512 KB OS : Linux 2.6.32-5-686 C compiler : gcc version 4.4.5 (Debian 4.4.5-8) libc : libc-2.11.2.so MEMORY INDEX : 2.928 INTEGER INDEX : 2.873 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 2.631 Baseline (LINUX) : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38 ==========================LINUX DATA BELOW========================== CPU : AuthenticAMD Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS 500MHz L2 Cache : 128 KB OS : Linux 2.6.33.1-geode C compiler : gcc version 4.4.5 (Debian 4.4.5-8) libc : libc-2.11.2.so MEMORY INDEX : 1.919 INTEGER INDEX : 1.887 FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 1.595 I find it interesting that the difference between the Intel Core and Atom CPUs is that high. I expected the Atom to have e.g. 50% of the speed of an Intel Core, but something like 10% to 20% is surprising. Although the clock speed of the AMD geode processor is far lower than the Atom and the processor generation is way behind, it still has approx. 65% of its speed. On the other hand, when looking at /proc/cpuinfo, the Core2 has 3878 bogomips, while the Atom has 3200 bogomips and the AMD Geode has 1000, which sounds a lot more appropriate. So I wonder if there's something wrong with my setup? Perhaps the kernel version I use has problems with the net6501? Or maybe there is something wrong with the bios? Maybe the CPU gets too hot and is throttling? The surface of the heatsink has 50°C, which is not cool, but I think still not too hot. And I tried cooling it down to ~ 38°C for the test, which made no difference. Any ideas/recommendations? Can anyone achieve a network throughput of something near 1Gbit with the net6501-70? Best Regards, Hermann Himmelbauer _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
