mike, I followed your suggestion (also suggested by other users, thank you all!) for up-clocking. Indeed, there seems to be an improvement though this is still not enough. Another acceptable solution for my problem would be the ability to write smaller portions of data. If I can assume that (in some optimal implementation of the SD driver) writing, for example, 16 Bytes would take 16/512 time than writing 512, I would be also happy. Currently, the SD driver uses hard-coded values of 512. Does that imply one cant set smaller sectors? (did a small test over 256, 128, 64 ... all failed). Furthermore, I don't mind wasting entire sector just for sake of fast writing of small chunks (up to 32). I'm no expert as regarding the msp, but I've also tried the following (If any of you experts see a basic flaw in this approach, feel free to shout): Small change to the SD interface, to support varying buff length. i.e. command error_t SD.writeBlock(const uint32_t sector, uint8_t * buffer*, uint16_t count*). and calling: write_block(sector * 512, count, buffer); instead of the original call: write_block(sector * 512, 512, buffer); Surprisingly, there was no change in performance, no matter what count was set too..
Once again, I don't mined being extremely 'space' inefficient just for the sake of a suitable 'time' solution. If i could write small chunks but still keep writing rate of ~30kB/s, I'd be happy... Any ideas? P.S I'm using a SanDisk SD card... On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 2:37 PM, mike healy <mikeghe...@gmail.com> wrote: > Avishay, > > As other people have already mentioned the simplest, and probably most > dramatic (in terms of speedup), way to improve the performance of the SD > card on the shimmer is to play with the clock settings. > > By default in TinyOS the MSP430 on the shimmer runs at 4MHz (generated by > the internal DCO). There is also an 8MHz resonator on all shimmer devices > which can be used to clock the MSP430. The simplest way to enable this is > to wire the FastClockC module ( > http://code.google.com/p/tinyos-main/source/browse/trunk/tos/platforms/shimmer/chips/msp430/FastClockC.nc) > to MainC.SoftwareInit. This will set MCLK to 8MHz and SMCLK to 4MHz. See > JustFatLoggingC.nc for an example of doing this: > http://tinyos.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tinyos/tinyos-2.x-contrib/shimmer/apps/JustFATLogging/JustFATLoggingC.nc?content-type=text%2Fplain > > You will also need to inform the SD driver about the change in SMCLK. The > easiest way of doing this is by adding the following line to your > applications Makefile: > PFLAGS += -DSMCLK_4MHZ > Again, JustFATLogging is a place to see this in action: > http://tinyos.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tinyos/tinyos-2.x-contrib/shimmer/apps/JustFATLogging/Makefile > > As an aside, when testing SD cards in the past, I found that performance > can vary dramatically across different cards (even among different products > from the same manufacturer), so it might also be worth trying a few > different type of cards (but also note that SPI mode support is a bit flaky > on cards by lots of manufacturers. I've found that Sandisk are by far the > best on this front in general) > > Mike > > > On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Michiel Konstapel > <m.konsta...@sownet.nl>wrote: > >> The default configuration for the 1611 runs the MCU at 4 MHz (main >> clock, MCLK). The USART which does SPI runs off SMCLK (sub-main clock) >> which is set to MCLK/4. That’s on the telosb, I don’t know if the shimmer >> platform does the same. The default setup does about 30-40 KB/sec, if I >> remember correctly. Of course, the flash writes also take time.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> You can speed things up by increasing the clock frequencies. SMCLK can be >> run at the same speed as MCLK, but the USART clock generator has a miminum >> divider of 2. The 1xx series has a maximum clock speed of 8 MHz, which >> would give you a 4 MHz SPI clock. Theoretically that’d max out at 0.5 >> MB/sec if you had zero overhead. Note that you’ll need a 3.6 V supply if >> you want to run at 8 MHz. It may work at a lower voltage, but then you’re >> outside the specs.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> You’ll want to study chapter 14 of the x1xx series user >> guide<http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau049f/slau049f.pdf>. >> That has all the nitty gritty details on the USART’s SPI mode. Note that >> TimerA is also clocked from SMCLK, and that’s used to generate the >> microsecond timer in TinyOS. If you change SMCLK, you’ll probably want to >> adjust the divider for TimerA so that still runs at 1 MHz.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> If you want to go faster still, while still using an MSP430 based >> platform, you could consider using one of the newer models like the Zolertia >> Z1 <http://www.zolertia.com/ti> or our >> G-Node<https://www.sownet.nl/index.php/products/gnode>which both use a 2xx >> series microcontroller. Those will run at 16 MHz, but >> neither comes with an onboard SD card slot, but both have the necessary I/O >> connections to add one. I don’t know if there’s already off-the-shelf nodes >> that use the 5xx series microcontrollers, some of which will do 25 MHz.** >> ** >> >> ** ** >> >> Hope this helps,**** >> >> Michiel**** >> >> ** ** >> >> *From:* tinyos-help-boun...@millennium.berkeley.edu [mailto: >> tinyos-help-boun...@millennium.berkeley.edu] *On Behalf Of *Avishay Meron >> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 01, 2013 09:52 >> *To:* Eric Decker >> *Cc:* tinyos-help@millennium.berkeley.edu >> >> *Subject:* Re: [Tinyos-help] Shimmer SD write speed**** >> >> ** ** >> >> Hi Eric. >> >> Thank you very much for you quick response. >> I guess I need to dig up. I'm using defaults... >> Anyway, I assume the default configurations you refer to are not set to >> about 20 times lower than max possible. >> 20 is the factor of improvement I'm looking for (at least!). >> I hope I'm not chasing pavements here...**** >> >> On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 5:32 AM, Eric Decker <cire...@gmail.com> wrote:** >> ** >> >> ** ** >> >> How fast are you clocking the 1611 cpu?**** >> >> ** ** >> >> How fast are you clocking the SPI feeding the SD card?**** >> >> ** ** >> >> That will tell you the max theoretical rate you can transfer data.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> The high data rates to the SD assume the parallel 4 bit wide SD protocol >> rather than the SPI single bit stream that is probably used on the Shimmer >> or on my cards.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 2:55 PM, Avishay Meron < >> avishay.me...@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:**** >> >> Hi all. >> Searching google and the mailing list, I haven't found an explicit answer >> to my problem. Here goes: >> I'm trying to test SD logging max write speed on a shimmer2r. I've tried >> using the FatFS but got unsatisfying results. >> So, I decided to write directly to the SD. Using a simple application >> (see code below), I found that the max rate of SD writing is about 20kB/s. >> Is that it? is this the maximum rate possible? I was hoping to get at least >> 0.5 or 1 MB/s. Any suggestions? >> >> Happy new year to you all... >> >> Here is my test code... >> >> -----------------TestSDP.nc------------------- >> #include "TestSD.h" >> >> module TestSDP{ >> uses{ >> interface Leds; >> interface Boot; >> interface SD; >> interface StdControl as SDStdControl; >> } >> } >> >> implementation{ >> >> uint8_t resetData[SECTOR_SIZE], dummyData[SECTOR_SIZE]; >> int8_t data=0xff; >> uint32_t beginSector=1000000, numOfIt=20000, currSector; >> >> //Using numOfIt=20000, it took the application 17 min and 47 sec to >> run, >> //from which 8 min and 51 sec to write dummyData. >> //The rest of the time the application Formated the sectors. >> //This means writing at about 20kB/s >> >> event void Boot.booted(){ >> call Leds.led2Toggle(); >> call SDStdControl.start(); >> memset(resetData, 0, SECTOR_SIZE); >> memset(dummyData, data, SECTOR_SIZE); >> call Leds.led2Toggle(); >> } >> >> void FormatSectors() >> { >> uint32_t i=0; >> currSector=beginSector; >> for (i=0; i<numOfIt; i++, currSector++) >> { >> call SD.writeBlock(currSector, resetData); >> } >> } >> >> void WriteDummyData() >> { >> uint32_t i=0; >> currSector=beginSector; >> for (i=0; i<numOfIt; i++, currSector++) >> { >> call SD.writeBlock(currSector, dummyData); >> } >> } >> >> async event void SD.available(){ >> call Leds.led0Toggle(); >> FormatSectors(); >> call Leds.led0Toggle(); >> call Leds.led1Toggle(); >> WriteDummyData(); >> call Leds.led1Toggle(); >> call Leds.led2Toggle(); >> } >> >> async event void SD.unavailable(){ >> } >> } >> >> -----------------TestSDC.nc------------------- >> >> configuration TestSDC{ >> } >> implementation{ >> components MainC, LedsC, SDC, TestSDP as app; >> app.Boot -> MainC.Boot; >> app.Leds -> LedsC; >> app.SD -> SDC; >> app.SDStdControl -> SDC; >> } >> >> -----------------TestSD.h------------------- >> #ifndef TEST_SD_H >> #define TEST_SD_H >> #define SECTOR_SIZE 512 >> #endif /* TEST_SD_H */ >> >> **** >> >> Best >> Avishay**** >> >> ** ** >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Tinyos-help mailing list >> Tinyos-help@millennium.berkeley.edu >> https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tinyos-help* >> *** >> >> >> >> **** >> >> ** ** >> >> -- >> Eric B. Decker >> Senior (over 50 :-) Researcher**** >> >> >> >> >> -- **** >> >> Best >> Avishay**** >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Tinyos-help mailing list >> Tinyos-help@millennium.berkeley.edu >> https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tinyos-help >> > > -- Best Avishay
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