Pogoplug Series 4 - Hardware CPU / Memory RAM

[marcelomanzo]

Just in case someone is interested how powerful is the new Pogo Plug Series 4...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <support@cloudengines.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Subject: [Pogoplug Support] Re: Pogoplug Series 4 (ticket #54997)
To: Marcelo Henrique Manzo <marcelomanzo@gmail.com>

Peter Tuey, Dec-15 01:40 (IST):
Hi Marcelo,

Thank you for contacting Pogoplug Support. We are using a Marvell 88F6192 chip with ARM V5 CPU 800Mhz and 128 ram.

Regards,

Pogoplug Support


Marcelo Henrique Manzo, Dec-14 22:10 (IST):
I would like to know how much CPU (Ghz) and Ram the Pogoplug Series 4 has.

Thank you,

Marcelo

[starbus]

[Edited to comply with the coplaint in the next comment]...

Fabulous, Marcelo! Thank you for this very quick investigational query!
My comments...

As far as hardware I/O and form factor, the new PogoPlug series 4 looks like a winner! I would like to see a thorough review that determines if an 800 MHz processor can keep up with 2 USB 3 ports, a SATA port, another USB 2 port, SD access and a fast FIOS connection to the world (with perhaps 2 or 3 users trying to suck down movies at the same time!) Two years ago, Marvell announced a souped up Plug Computer 3.0 reference design with a 2GHz processor. But the products never followed. (Perhaps PogoPlug got tired of waiting for reference kit?).

Some users may ask for WiFi. It's included on some GuruPlug models and the never-materialized PC3 reference design. But what could possibly prevent users from attaching a Plug Computer directly to their router? I really don't see a point to Wifi in a device that stays connected and acts as a server to owners on the go.

Likewise (at least, for me) the cloud service is a Red Herring. The whole point of a Plug Computer is to serve the cloud from your own home or office) Pogo is trying to be a cloud provider (like Apple, Amazon, DropBox and everyone else). But let's face it. They sell a product that frees you from 3rd parties and data centers. Perhaps they should market their cloud service as a backup to the personal cloud. Of course, with their current price structure, it could get very expensive. I have 2 and 3 TB drives attached to my Pogoplug.

Even better, I would like to see the cloud allocate remote space to users on all the attached drives of all the peers -- in a distributed, encrypted, global P2P torrent. A distributed data cloud with no data centers. Symform and SpaceMonkey are setting up this model now to compete with SugarSync & DropBox. They both use an RDDC model (Reverse Distributed Data Cloud)

For me, the only real problem with the PogoPlug model is that it is dependant upon a web "go-between" and centralized aps rather than an single-step IP resolver. I prefer the Tonido model which doesn't require a subscription and greatly enhances privacy.

[kmihelich]

Some better research could have saved you some time on hypothesizing, baseless accusations, and false claims. Pogoplug switched over to the (now firesaled) oxnas platform from PLX only a few months before Marvell released their Armada line of processors, which handily beats the pants off of what Pogoplug tried to do in their Pro/Video incarnations/disasters. There are multiple platforms that use Armada chipsets, with development boards from Marvell (obviously) and CompuLab, and full devices from Globalscale and Buffalo, along with many other third party corporations in various implementations. And given that the latest and greatest versions of the processor are dual-core and use ARMv7 instruction sets with a hardware FPU, the only thing to see looking back at Pogoplug is the dust cloud they were left in.

Wifi on-board is more of a personal need/want and is too subjective of a topic to assess as a flaw in a device that does or does not have the capability. To most it's about convenience, less wiring, or just that they ran out of ports on their router.

On the topic of throughput and your GoFlex Net scenario, the entire armv5 repo is maintained using two of those sitting on my desk. Given that I see on average 50MB/s flowing back and forth through those devices just off of distcc and iSCSI access, you're doing something wrong if you're getting whatever your 1-3% of something actually computes to. To compare what I do locally, you would need 16 of your FIOS lines bonded to handle the traffic I generate from one of the devices. And this is just random data access and transfer for compiling, streaming they perform even better. They are incredibly competent at data transfer when you treat them right and set them up properly. A computer system is only as good as the person operating it.

Lastly, these forums are forums, not blog spots. We don't care what the Pogoplug software does, doesn't do, sucks at, or excels at, because this distribution is a replacement for it. Debating the finer points of what their global domination tactics are would be a better fit for forums geared toward that subject, or for your personal wordpress installation. Your advertising has also been removed for you.

[WarheadsSE]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l)
BogoMIPS : 799.53
Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp
CPU implementer : 0x56
CPU architecture: 5TE
CPU variant : 0x2
CPU part : 0x131
CPU revision : 1

Hardware : Feroceon-KW
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '

~ # cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

31 0 2048 mtdblock0
31 1 3072 mtdblock1
31 2 3072 mtdblock2
31 3 8192 mtdblock3
31 4 114688 mtdblock4
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '~ # cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00200000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00300000 00020000 "uImage"
mtd2: 00300000 00020000 "uImage2"
mtd3: 00800000 00020000 "failsafe"
mtd4: 07000000 00020000 "root"')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '

~ # cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 118628 kB
MemFree: 89220 kB
Buffers: 288 kB
Cached: 15108 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 8076 kB
Inactive: 9360 kB
Active(anon): 2056 kB
Inactive(anon): 0 kB
Active(file): 6020 kB
Inactive(file): 9360 kB
Unevictable: 0 kB
Mlocked: 0 kB
SwapTotal: 0 kB
SwapFree: 0 kB
Dirty: 24 kB
Writeback: 4 kB
AnonPages: 2072 kB
Mapped: 3040 kB
Slab: 9032 kB
SReclaimable: 684 kB
SUnreclaim: 8348 kB
PageTables: 124 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 59312 kB
Committed_AS: 13428 kB
VmallocTotal: 516096 kB
VmallocUsed: 856 kB
VmallocChunk: 514584 kB
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '

~ # mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
ubi0:rootfs on / type ubifs (ro,noatime)
none on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,mode=600)
none on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,relatime)
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
~ # /bin/busybox lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 154b:0048
~ # /bin/busybox lspci
00:01.0 Class 0c03: 1b73:1009
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '~ # /bin/busybox lsmod
xce 22632 0 - Live 0xbf247000
rt3070sta 608524 0 - Live 0xbf1ad000
ufsd 495236 0 - Live 0xbf12f000 (P)
ejectbutton 1868 0 - Live 0xbf129000
gpio_keys 3988 0 - Live 0xbf123000
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '~ # uname -a
Linux PogoplugMobile 2.6.31.8 #4 Tue Aug 23 13:00:50 PDT 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux')

[kmihelich]

For those that might be wondering if the PP4 is an overall improvement, the answer is no. There is one caveat only, and that is that there is USB 3.0 functionality enabled via the PCIe bus. You can take that however you want, especially since a SATA port is next door.

Here are the formal differences in the chipsets, which differ only in their processor and memory capabilities. The 88F6192 listed first is what is in the PP4, with the 88F6281 being in plugs such as the Pogoplug v2, Dockstar, GoFlex Home/Net, and others.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', ' 88F6192 88F6281
CPU Core Running at 800 MHz, L2 Running at 1.0, 1.2, or 1.5 GHz
cache at up to 400 MHz and L2 cache at up to 500 MHz

TCLK Frequency 166 MHz 200 MHz

DDR SDRAM 200 MHz clock, 400 MHz data 400 MHz clock, 800 MHz data rate
Two DRAM chip selects Four DRAM chip selects
DDR2 densities up to 1Gb DDR2 densities up to 2Gb
Up to 16 open pages Up to 32 open pages
512MB total address space 2GB total address space

GPIO Port 36-bits 50-bits')

Aside from those differences, everything else remains the same including SATA, GbE, PCIe, MPEG TS, Audio, CESA, USB, etc. The PP4 is essentially a step down from their original models, and of course from the oxnas variant. The good side of it all though is that they released a product once again that has mainline kernel support, and we should shortly have some information on getting ALARM installed now that the devices are in the hands of our team.

[jmandawg]

Mine's coming on Monday. Seems like each revision of the hardware gets progressively worse. At lease we didn't spend $99 on it. Has anyone done a quick speed test of the USB 3.0?

[WarheadsSE]

I don't have it attached to the worlds most performant drive mind you, WD My Book, 3TB.

write
time dd if=/dev/zero of=delete bs=4096 count=250000
250000+0 records in
250000+0 records out
1024000000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 30.095 s, 34.0 MB/s

time dd if=/dev/zero of=delete bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 20.8956 s, 50.2 MB/s

read
time dd of=/dev/null if=delete bs=4096 count=200000
200000+0 records in
200000+0 records out
819200000 bytes (819 MB) copied, 12.3376 s, 66.4 MB/s

time dd of=/dev/null if=delete bs=1M count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 22.3946 s, 46.8 MB/s

I also ran `7za b` (p7zip)
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
PPV4
7-Zip (A) 9.13 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-04-15
p7zip Version 9.13 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,1 CPU)

RAM size: 120 MB, # CPU hardware threads: 1
RAM usage: 107 MB, # Benchmark threads: 1

Dict Compressing | Decompressing
Speed Usage R/U Rating | Speed Usage R/U Rating
KB/s % MIPS MIPS | KB/s % MIPS MIPS

22: 124 50 242 120 | 4595 90 459 414
23: 243 99 251 247 | 5002 100 458 458
----------------------------------------------------------------
Avr: 74 246 184 95 458 436
Tot: 85 352 310

')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
GFN
7-Zip (A) 9.13 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-04-15
p7zip Version 9.13 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,1 CPU)

RAM size: 120 MB, # CPU hardware threads: 1
RAM usage: 107 MB, # Benchmark threads: 1

Dict Compressing | Decompressing
Speed Usage R/U Rating | Speed Usage R/U Rating
KB/s % MIPS MIPS | KB/s % MIPS MIPS

22: 361 100 351 351 | 7422 100 670 670

')

[jmandawg]

Thanks, USB 3.0 speeds look pretty good. Not really sure about the 7zip speeds definitely looks slower than the other pogoplugs.

[kmihelich]

Unless I'm horribly mistaken, my post above definitively shows the pp4 to be slower in both clock speed and memory. Basic math applies: 800 MHz < 1.2 GHz (or 1200 MHz).

[xenoxaos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kmihelich', 'U')nless I'm horribly mistaken, my post above definitively shows the pp4 to be slower in both clock speed and memory. Basic math applies: 800 MHz < 1.2 GHz (or 1200 MHz).