EMMC

[adamjedgar]

I have read that running from an EMMC module is faster than micro SD Card. Is this true?

If so, is it worth the additional money on Pine A64 2GB? (will it improve performance once system is booted up and in Remix OS?)

Any particular specs i need to consider before purchasing an EMMC module for pine64?

[MarkHaysHarris777]

I have read that running from an EMMC module is faster than micro SD Card. Is this true?

If so, is it worth the additional money on Pine A64 2GB? (will it improve performance once system is booted up and in Remix OS?)

Any particular specs i need to consider before purchasing an EMMC module for pine64?

You cannot put eMMC on the Pine board...  its DOES exist on the sopine mother board.

... yes, eMMC is considerably faster;  because the bus width is wider typically 8bit.

[dkryder]

i think he is talking about the adapter module that plugs into sd card slot. supposedly they make emmc look like sd card. those will not work on pine?

[pfeerick]

i think he is talking about the adapter module that plugs into sd card slot. supposedly they make emmc look like sd card. those will not work on pine?

Like this eMMC Adapter? I don't see why not... it claims to allow a plugged in (Hardkernel) eMMC module to be access via the microSD card slot on laptops or on devices that only have microSDs.

@adamjedgar: Yes, eMMC is a lot faster than microSD. However, if I'm remembering another discussion correctly, I don't think the pine64 can make full use of the increased eMMC speed. Why not give it a try and let us know the results? :-D

[xalius]

You won't benefit much from that on the sdcard slot since it uses the normal 4bit sdcard bus. The SOPine eMMC and Pinebook PCBs have eMMC mounted on the proper 8bit bus and can reach much higher speeds... I think we already tested that a while ago and it wasnt really better than a good sdcard...

[adamjedgar]

hi guys, 
thanks for all your answers.
yes i was talking about the emmc adapter running through sdcard slot. And if i am understanding what is being said here...if using the standard sdcard slot on the pine64, there is no point as sdcard technology is already as fast as that slot presently anyway.

@MarkHayHarris777...Ah i see i looked at the wrong sopine board. I now see there is a Sopine Baseboard, which is what you are referring too.

1. Am i understanding correctly that even on the sopine board, the actual improvement above that of a good sdcard is not enough to warrant price of the upgrade?
2. I would also need to purchase the sopine compute module.

• If i was interested in stacking the compute module, would i need to use heatsinks or fans if setup like a tablet (ie ideas on how do we cool this thing whilst minimising vertical space?)
  

3. BUS extenders. 

• In the event that i wanted to add Sopine compute modules, i dont want them at 90 degrees, parrallel to the mainboard to save vertical space. How do i stack them to achieve this (see example of stacker for video cards...which is way too big)
  
• does Pine have any sodimm-ddr3 stackers? (i want to stack 2 of these on the sopine baseboard)
  
• could i simply make one up out of something like the old style IDE ribbon? (I realise one cannot use an ide connector...its just to illustrate how the old ribbon cables used to have multiple slots already on them for connecting multiple devices such as hdd, dvd, fdd etc)
  

[pfeerick]

1. Am i understanding correctly that even on the sopine board, the actual improvement above that of a good sdcard is not enough to warrant price of the upgrade?

I'll leave 2 & 3 for Xalius or Marcus to answer as I'm not really following the SoPine developments ATM.

But with regards to this point... then there should be a marked improvement in performance on the SoPine (and pinebook), as the SD card (and thus a plug in eMMC via SD) is on a 4bit bus on the pine64, whereas the sopine has the eMMC on a 8bit bus. So in other words, the pine64 storage will be as fast as you can get it unless you use UAS (USB Attached SCSI) to attach a raid hard drive arrangement via the usb ports. This is doable, and I believe from tests done on the Armbian forum that they have been able to double the throughput of the microSD card that way... but that is by heading down a different path.