The PINEBOOK Pro M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Adapter

[fire219]

Is there some kind of upper limit in terms of throughput for the NVMe on the SoC side of things? I assume if you get some fancy Intel Optane thing it'll start to hit some other system limits

The limit for throughput is the PCIe interface that the NVMe communications are going through. In this case, it is a PCIe v2.1 x4 link.

A single (x1) PCIe2 link has a theoretical bandwidth of 500MB/s. More lanes adds more bandwidth in increments of 500MB/s. Therefore, the x4 link can theoretically do 2000MB/s (or in simpler terms, 2GB/s).

Those are just theoretical numbers, however, and reality is imperfect. There's also control signals and whatever else that has to go over that link. Reality is likely going to be somewhere around 1.5-1.7GB/s.

And similarly for the mSD. Is there an upper limit to the class that is supported? (past which you won't see any perf benefit)

I believe that the limit for what the microSD slot can support is UHS-I. Its fastest mode is "SDR104", which provides theoretical speeds of up to 104MB/s.

[Arwen]

@fire219 is mostly correct. PCIe 2.x is 5Gbps, but really only 4Gbps without overhead. So maximum of 16Gbps for data, using all 4 lanes. And yes, there really is 1Gbps overhead for a PCIe 2.x lane;


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Expres...xpress_2.0

PCI 3.x and later, drop the overhead to an insignificant amount. So they can get away with PCIe 3's 8Gbps being double performance from PCIe 2's 5Gbps.

Of course, 16Gbps, (2GBytes ps), is still overwhelming  fast compared to the eMMC or even SATA.

And from my reading, the SD controller is version 3.0, which is up to 104MBps, depending on the card installed. (If UHS-I or later card is used, that gets the 104MBps speed. Older cards get 50MBps or less.)

[z4v4l]

fire219 said absolutely correct. 500 MB/s == 4Gbit/s.

As of SD cards, it's impossible to get 104MB/s on current Rockchip SoCs. Apparently for stability reasons, they limited SDMMC controller clock to 150MHz, which means maximum theoretical limit in SDR104 of 75 MB/s. and this is really good, because it's x3 faster than in pre UHS-I. UHS-II is not supported at all. I haven't seen an SBC with it supported.

[thequux]

0.1W active, 0.04W idle, according to ARK . It's the same for the 2TB variant (which I got), and ARK is pretty definitive. Even has a link to the datasheet (which mostly repeats the same specs)

[CampGareth]

0.1W active, 0.04W idle, according to ARK . It's the same for the 2TB variant (which I got), and ARK is pretty definitive. Even has a link to the datasheet (which mostly repeats the same specs)

ARK isn't always accurate unfortunately. The headline figures are usually right but I had a bad time when ARK said Ivybridge laptop CPUs supported HDMI 1.4 when they didn't support the full 1.4 clock speed.

[blu]

0.1W active, 0.04W idle, according to ARK . It's the same for the 2TB variant (which I got), and ARK is pretty definitive. Even has a link to the datasheet (which mostly repeats the same specs)

Active consumption quoted by vendors is usually averaged over some 'normal' use-case scenarios. The power rails still need to be able to supply the top draw of the device for short instances.

FWIW, I'm currently using a WD Blue SN500 NVMe with my RK3399 SBC, and though its average rating is sub-0.1W, its 'heavy-duty' is 2.7W, while its peak (as in absolute peak, sustained up to 10us) is 1.8A (x 3.3V = 5.9W). Keep in mind that's a very power-efficient model, top performers (Gen3 x4) can be rated up to 3A and then some.

[bcnaz]

Soo
   I see lots of good info on the module specs,

      But what are the exact maximum speed specifications that the Pinebook Pro motherboard can support  ?
             ( A 3,500MBs read module would be impressive,  If  the board can handle it.)
                 ( Also higher wattage/more heat,  Thicker module )


     maybe I missed something ?  
       ( I do seem to get more info each time I re-read thru this shared information. )

     One module I saw had an 'active' .33  watt,  with 1,800MBs read,  not bad for stretching out the battery life..?
        ( PCIe 3.0 x4  and only  2.15mm thick ! )

          Very Interesting....
                      I am hoping to find that perfect M.2 drive to put into my PBP when it finally arrives

[Arwen]

Soo
   I see lots of good info on the module specs,

      But what are the exact maximum speed specifications that the Pinebook Pro motherboard can support  ?
             ( A 3,500MBs read module would be impressive,  If  the board can handle it.)
                 ( Also higher wattage/more heat,  Thicker module )


     maybe I missed something ?  
       ( I do seem to get more info each time I re-read thru this shared information. )

     One module I saw had an 'active' .33  watt,  with 1,800MBs read,  not bad for stretching out the battery life..?
        ( PCIe 3.0 x4  and only  2.15mm thick ! )

          Very Interesting....
                      I am hoping to find that perfect M.2 drive to put into my PBP when it finally arrives

We are updating the Wiki with some information;

Pinebook_Pro_Main_Page - Expansion_Ports

The Rockchip RK3399 only supports PCIe 2.x speeds, which are 5GT/s per lane. Because of the 20% encoding overhead, that works out to 4Gbps per lane for data, commands and responses. So 4 lanes x 4Gbps = 16Gbps, or roughly 2GBytes per second maximum. Of course, transfers to memory may slow things down. While the RK3399 has 2 memory channels, they are not as wide as non-SoC computer chips.

Note that PCIe 3.x speed is 8GT/s, but is actually double PCIe 2.x since the encoding overhead has been drastically reduced.

[CampGareth]

 what are the exact maximum speed specifications that the Pinebook Pro motherboard can support  ?

4x PCIE 2.0 lanes make for a maximum speed of roughly 2GB/s. Drives capable of faster speeds will still work but can't exceed this speed limit.

[bcnaz]

SO  we definitely need to keep discussing the specifications for these M.2 modules,
        Accumulating more Data.
     
      But as we are seeing some of the people who have already received their shiny new Pinebook Pro's
       are running into problems making them physically FIT into their laptops.

       I would strongly suggest waiting before purchasing one until we see what the problem involves.
        IT seems that they do not have enough space behind the touch pad,  May just need a thinner module
            or it may mean needing to re-locate the module.

          I am sure it will get resolved,  but  'How'   has not been determined     yet.
 
        PLUS :    IT appears the M.2 module  'May Not'  be able to be used as THE  BOOT drive....
                            (Shucks,  I have the adapter already,  I hope they can make it bootable.)