I bought a Rock 5A and a M.2 Extension board, which is advertised as compatible with the 5A.
However I am at a loss trying to connect it to the SBC… I don’t see on the Rock 5A a suitable connector where to plug into the flat cable that arrived together with the extension board…
Can somebody advice please ? Maybe with a photo ?
Thanks
Fred
Oohhhh…I see… Now I do understand what that little interface board was meant for…
Thanks indeed. You saved my day 
Fred
@Freddy did you get the nvme hat working? What read/write speeds are you getting? Mine are dismal at about 25MB/s for write.
@cnogradi yes, it is working ok. How did you measure the speed? I could use exactly your method, so we could compare the results…
Fred
@Freddy It might be good to use the same commands as here to compare to rock 5b m.2 m connector: Rock 5b nvme speed test
I tried, but that test makes use of this command:
`
fio --name=write --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=write --bs=1M --direct=1 --size=2G --numjobs=30 --runtime=60 --group_reporting --filename=/mnt/tmp/test
`
and the answer fron the Debian 11 installed on my Rock 5A is:
bash: fio: command not found
Fred
Yeah I had to install it: ‘sudo apt-get install fio’
Ok, installed fio.
The output of running it was:
fred@rock-5a:~/Downloads$ sudo fio --name=write --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=write --bs=1M --direct=1 --size=2G --numjobs=30 --runtime=60 --group_reporting --filename=/mnt/tmp/test write: (g=0): rw=write, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (W) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=4 ... fio-3.25 Starting 30 processes write: Laying out IO file (1 file / 2048MiB) Jobs: 30 (f=30): [W(30)][100.0%][w=396MiB/s][w=396 IOPS][eta 00m:00s] write: (groupid=0, jobs=30): err= 0: pid=26790: Wed Aug 9 00:16:22 2023 write: IOPS=398, BW=398MiB/s (418MB/s)(23.5GiB/60299msec); 0 zone resets slat (usec): min=139, max=298550, avg=3122.64, stdev=23617.93 clat (msec): min=12, max=633, avg=297.46, stdev=56.13 lat (msec): min=13, max=633, avg=300.58, stdev=51.18 clat percentiles (msec): | 1.00th=[ 92], 5.00th=[ 239], 10.00th=[ 271], 20.00th=[ 275], | 30.00th=[ 275], 40.00th=[ 279], 50.00th=[ 284], 60.00th=[ 292], | 70.00th=[ 313], 80.00th=[ 334], 90.00th=[ 368], 95.00th=[ 388], | 99.00th=[ 468], 99.50th=[ 498], 99.90th=[ 558], 99.95th=[ 584], | 99.99th=[ 609] bw ( KiB/s): min=212737, max=618477, per=100.00%, avg=408207.59, stdev=2608.97, samples=3600 iops : min= 193, max= 602, avg=393.07, stdev= 2.57, samples=3600 lat (msec) : 20=0.03%, 50=0.21%, 100=0.89%, 250=4.57%, 500=93.82% lat (msec) : 750=0.48% cpu : usr=0.15%, sys=0.31%, ctx=24425, majf=0, minf=434 IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.2%, 4=99.6%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0% submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0% complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0% issued rwts: total=0,24026,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0 latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=4 Run status group 0 (all jobs): WRITE: bw=398MiB/s (418MB/s), 398MiB/s-398MiB/s (418MB/s-418MB/s), io=23.5GiB (25.2GB), run=60299-60299msec Disk stats (read/write): nvme0n1: ios=16/96022, merge=0/176, ticks=369/27600379, in_queue=27602813, util=99.98%
Fred
[Edited - messed up read speed originally] Thanks @Freddy. I figured out what I was doing wrong and got a write speed comparable to yours below. I also tested read speed and it seems the same. I did not have the Radxa hat but used this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-NGFF-NVME-WiFi-Cable/dp/B07DZF1W55/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3BO6JWA4PWEBL&keywords=sintech+m.2+ngff&qid=1691539738&sprefix=sintech+m.2+ngff%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-5
The NVME is a SK HYNIX Platinum P41 2TB
CMD: fio --name=write --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=write --bs=1M --direct=1 --size=2G --numjobs=30 --runtime=60 --group_reporting --filename=/mnt/nvme/test
write: (g=0): rw=write, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (W) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=4
...
fio-3.25
Starting 30 processes
write: Laying out IO file (1 file / 2048MiB)
Jobs: 30 (f=30): [W(30)][100.0%][w=402MiB/s][w=402 IOPS][eta 00m:00s]
write: (groupid=0, jobs=30): err= 0: pid=4131: Tue Aug 8 23:38:26 2023
write: IOPS=401, BW=402MiB/s (421MB/s)(23.7GiB/60317msec); 0 zone resets
slat (usec): min=75, max=302914, avg=3447.93, stdev=26606.33
clat (msec): min=2, max=3459, avg=294.82, stdev=113.89
lat (msec): min=5, max=3459, avg=298.27, stdev=111.48
clat percentiles (msec):
| 1.00th=[ 62], 5.00th=[ 161], 10.00th=[ 243], 20.00th=[ 288],
| 30.00th=[ 296], 40.00th=[ 296], 50.00th=[ 300], 60.00th=[ 300],
| 70.00th=[ 300], 80.00th=[ 300], 90.00th=[ 313], 95.00th=[ 388],
| 99.00th=[ 510], 99.50th=[ 558], 99.90th=[ 2165], 99.95th=[ 2769],
| 99.99th=[ 3406]
bw ( KiB/s): min=149460, max=846094, per=100.00%, avg=416246.25, stdev=3132.75, samples=3558
iops : min= 142, max= 825, avg=402.06, stdev= 3.09, samples=3558
lat (msec) : 4=0.01%, 10=0.01%, 20=0.05%, 50=0.71%, 100=1.49%
lat (msec) : 250=9.27%, 500=87.30%, 750=0.89%, 1000=0.04%, 2000=0.12%
lat (msec) : >=2000=0.12%
cpu : usr=0.19%, sys=0.34%, ctx=24597, majf=0, minf=495
IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.2%, 4=99.6%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=0,24220,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=4
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
WRITE: bw=402MiB/s (421MB/s), 402MiB/s-402MiB/s (421MB/s-421MB/s), io=23.7GiB (25.4GB), run=60317-60317msec
Disk stats (read/write):
nvme0n1: ios=0/101217, merge=0/92, ticks=0/28001941, in_queue=28001952, util=99.92%
CMD: fio --name=read --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=4 --rw=read --bs=1M --direct=1 --size=2G --numjobs=30 --runtime=60 --group_reporting --filename=/mnt/nvme/testread: (g=0): rw=read, bs=(R) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (W) 1024KiB-1024KiB, (T) 1024KiB-1024KiB, ioengine=libaio, iodepth=4
...
fio-3.25
Starting 30 processes
Jobs: 30 (f=30): [R(30)][100.0%][r=404MiB/s][r=404 IOPS][eta 00m:00s]
read: (groupid=0, jobs=30): err= 0: pid=5405: Wed Aug 9 00:19:00 2023
read: IOPS=398, BW=399MiB/s (418MB/s)(23.5GiB/60284msec)
slat (usec): min=51, max=2481, avg=198.07, stdev=120.15
clat (msec): min=11, max=565, avg=300.08, stdev=17.74
lat (msec): min=12, max=565, avg=300.28, stdev=17.69
clat percentiles (msec):
| 1.00th=[ 268], 5.00th=[ 275], 10.00th=[ 284], 20.00th=[ 292],
| 30.00th=[ 296], 40.00th=[ 300], 50.00th=[ 300], 60.00th=[ 305],
| 70.00th=[ 309], 80.00th=[ 309], 90.00th=[ 313], 95.00th=[ 317],
| 99.00th=[ 326], 99.50th=[ 330], 99.90th=[ 418], 99.95th=[ 456],
| 99.99th=[ 502]
bw ( KiB/s): min=255767, max=492224, per=100.00%, avg=408737.62, stdev=1944.87, samples=3600
iops : min= 237, max= 480, avg=394.73, stdev= 1.94, samples=3600
lat (msec) : 20=0.02%, 50=0.05%, 100=0.08%, 250=0.27%, 500=99.56%
lat (msec) : 750=0.01%
cpu : usr=0.03%, sys=0.32%, ctx=24067, majf=0, minf=31218
IO depths : 1=0.1%, 2=0.2%, 4=99.6%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
submit : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
complete : 0=0.0%, 4=100.0%, 8=0.0%, 16=0.0%, 32=0.0%, 64=0.0%, >=64=0.0%
issued rwts: total=24053,0,0,0 short=0,0,0,0 dropped=0,0,0,0
latency : target=0, window=0, percentile=100.00%, depth=4
Run status group 0 (all jobs):
READ: bw=399MiB/s (418MB/s), 399MiB/s-399MiB/s (418MB/s-418MB/s), io=23.5GiB (25.2GB), run=60284-60284msec
Disk stats (read/write):
nvme0n1: ios=95868/3, merge=0/1, ticks=27444806/42, in_queue=27444888, util=99.92%