cmirra

Hi All,
 
Which SOC gives best performance today for SATA I/O?

According to the Sunxi wiki: http://linux-sunxi.org/Sunxi_devices_as_NAS
"Since not every A20 based sunxi device uses GMAC networking (or even Ethernet at all) the following devices are the best choices: A20-OLinuXino-Lime2, Banana Pi, Banana Pro or Banana Pi M1+, Cubietruck, Hummingbird A20, Lamobo R1, Orange Pi, Orange Pi Mini or pcDuino3 Nano (Lite)."

I've actually got a cubietruck+ here (that uses a terrible USB to sata bridge) but it's a terrible choice. Hoping you guys (or tkaiser ) can steer me in the right direction. I could run out and order a banana pro, but I feel like A20 has been around a while and maybe there's something better today? Clearfog is looking nice, but I guess I'd need a pci-e sata card.
 
This isn't 'really' a NAS -- The actual use case is as follows:
 
 
 


As you can see, the inbound data will come from an OTG connection running g_mass_storage gadget to appear as usb disk to host pc. This is essentially a raid1 array that is decrypted via gpio keypad, and made available as a usb drive to another system. Hardware accel for the encryption would of course be welcomed.
 
I'll need something that doesn't use a usb->sata bridge, because usb will likely be tied up transfering inbound data -- and even if it wasn't they seem terribly slow. A good support community would of course be nice too -- The H8/a83T just doesn't seem to have it yet.
 
Any input would be appreciated.
 
Thanks all,
CMirra

Well, since this is really not NAS but USB gadget instead you will most probably be limited by slow g_mass_storage mode. The CT+ you chose is not that brain-dead like a Banana Pi M3 (there USB hub and SATA bridge share the same USB host port, on the CT+ the hub is connected to the SoC's HSIC port and the SATA bridge uses an own USB host port) but it's the wrong device for that since USB ports have to share bandwidth.
 
If I were you I would choose a quad-core device with 2 or 3 real USB host ports that has no thermal problems (Orange Pi PC, PC Plus or Lite). Crypto acceleration with H3 seems to not perform 'that good' but maybe H3 is beefy enough for the job.
 
BTW: I don't know whether it's possible to use Marvell's CESA crypto engine right now in Linux. But at least you can use mechanical adapters to convert M.2 and MiniPCIe slots of the Clearfog into normal SATA ports (needs some u-boot voodoo to configure the SERDES lanes to not carry PCIe but SATA instead but this information is available already)
 
Regarding 'community' around H8/A83T unfortunately you're right. There is none (just a bunch of clueless customers that still don't want to understand that they bought paperweights) and OS software/support situation is really horrible. Just as an example: https://github.com/cubieboard/Cubietruck_Plus-kernel-source/issues/2#issuecomment-244859306