Modern UDMA CompactFlash Reader Benchmarks FireWire vs. USB 2.

CompactFlash Reader Sequential Data 4K Sequential Data Random Data 4K Random Data
Benchmarks blocks 256K blocks blocks 256K blocks
Uncached Uncached Uncached Uncached Uncached Uncached Uncached Uncached
Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read
ATP 300X
Promax II UDMA
16.67 31.16 9.92 41.46 0.18 8.80 6.80 40.04
FireWire CompactFlash
800 2GB
UDMA PQI 100X
CompactFlash 0.40 14.09 6.48 15.77 0.10 4.47 3.84 15.39
2GB (PIO)
ATP 300X
Promax II UDMA
15.09 27.56 7.77 37.54 0.18 8.53 5.93 37.08
FireWire CompactFlash
400 2GB
UDMA PQI 100X
CompactFlash 0.40 14.10 5.47 15.76 0.10 4.50 3.67 15.50
2GB (PIO)
ATP 300X
Promax II UDMA
5.13 11.06 1.29 13.72 0.16 6.08 1.23 13.72
CompactFlash
USB 2.0 2GB
UDMA
PQI 100X
CompactFlash 0.38 8.22 1.29 9.50 0.10 3.74 1.23 9.50
2GB (PIO)
ATP 300X
Promax II UDMA
2.01 2.78 0.95 2.50 0.15 2.29 0.91 2.51
CompactFlash
USB 2.0 2GB
PQI 100X
CompactFlash 0.34 2.73 0.95 2.51 0.09 1.94 0.90 2.51
2GB (PIO)

These benchmarks demonstrate the wide gulf in speeds between high performance buses and lower performing
buses when accessing data on UDMA enabled CompactFlash Cards. As with benchmarks comparing hard disk drives,
FireWire consistently beats out USB 2.0 by significant margins for read and write speeds to mass storage devices.
With recent UDMA CompactFlash reaching throughputs of Ultra ATA/133 (UDMA 6), choosing an appropriate
CompactFlash reader to take advantage of such speeds is mission critical.
The point of high performance UDMA CompactFlash is speeding digital photography work-flows, which in the past
were bottlenecked by digital media's read write speeds. While competing digital media cards employ slow serial
busses, CompactFlash's parallel bus based off the PC Card standard have allowed for upward speed increases
culminating with UDMA 6 CompactFlash cards like the Sandisk Extreme IV Ducati edition. Reading RAW DSLR files off
CompactFlash as quickly as possible, especially in the field, is of paramount importance for professional
photographers. For professional photographers, photojournalists, and serious amateur photographers USB 2.0 based
readers aren't up to the task.
While USB 2.0's theoretical 480Mbp/s (60MBp/s) throughput should be sufficient for UDMA 4 CompactFlash, real
throughput is significantly less. Top hard drive manufacturers typically cite USB 2.0's best speed at 33MB/s, or about
half the speed of UDMA 4 CompactFlash, or 25% of UDMA 6 CompactFlash. There are myriad reasons for USB 2.0's
'real world' speeds including: CPU overhead from its master/slave arrangement, NRZI encoding, and inexpensive
chipset implementations. The USB 2.0 UDMA reader used in the benchmarks above uses one of the latest USB
chipsets from Genesys Logic. While a new generation of that chipset should soon be available, we don't foresee it
providing throughput close to half of that of FireWire.
The above tests demonstrate both FireWire 800 and 400 readers are significantly faster for reading CompactFlash
cards by orders of magnitude. When card to computer speed in crucial, always choose a FireWire based
CompactFlash reader or a reader with a comparable bandwidth.

FIREWIRE 800 COMPACTFLASH READER PCIE EXPRESSCARD TO COMPACTFLASH

PCM-CR-FW81ECF-02
CFFire800 Pro FireWire 800 to
CompactFlash Drive Read-Writer
Blazing fast UDMA 6 and PIO 4
capable, CFFire800 is a
professional's choice and the best
option for high end CompactFlash
Cards.
EXP34-ADP-CF2-02
CFExpressPro+ PCIe ExpressCard to
CompactFlash Memory Card Adapter
2.5Gbps
The CFExpressPro+ PCIe provides
portable performance with UDMA 6 capable PCIe
ExpressCard for the most demanding applications.
 DUAL FW800 COMPACTFLASH READERS
BNDL-FW8CF-01
UDMA Bundle two CFFire800 Pros,
one FireRepeater 800, one 9-9 pin
1M Cable
Special bundle deal with FireWire
800 hub, cable and dual CFFire800
Pros allows use of two readers
simultaneously off one powered port.
USB 2.0 MULTI-CARD READ-WRITER
PCM-CR-UEMUL03
MotionFlash32 USB 2.0 to 5 Slot
Multi-Card Read-Writer
Uses the latest Genesys Logic
chipset providing excellent
read/write speeds for a USB based
card reader. PIO Mode 6 CompactFlash and SD(HC) 2.0
Class 6 capable.

© Copyright 2008 Synchrotech, all rights reserved.

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