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| DeadBeef |
 Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:07 am |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 264
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USB Accelerator
The TAP and the patch accelerate USB transfers by suppressing the calculation of the CRC16 checksum for data blocks being transferred from PVR to PC.
Results measured with a 1617870848-byte file transferred from a TF5000PVR and a 2-year old PC (Athlon) running Windows XP:
- w/o modification: 725265 msec => 2.2 MB/s
- with modification: 479344 msec => 3.37 MB/s
It corresponds to a gain of approximately 50%. (This may vary depending on the firmware version, PVR model and the PC performance.)
In order to benefit from the USB Accelerator you should either install the patch or run the TAP once before starting to transfer the data after restart.
Both do basically the same thing. The patch modifies the firmware permanently. The TAP modifies the firmware in the RAM temporarily (i.e. until next restart).
The modified firmware can only be deployed with tools tolerating the protocol deviation mentioned above. Currently the following tools can be used with modified firmware:
The original TfDll cannot be used because it always expects a correct CRC16 checksum and would abort the transfer.
The CRC16 calculation is dispensable because USB chips ensure the data integrity by deploying the CRC16.
The patched TfDll also accepts data packets with valid CRC16.
Limitations
The modification is only applied to transfers from PVR to PC. The opposite direction remains as is.
Disclaimer
The use of the software is done at your own discretion and risk and with agreement that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from such activities. The author assumes no responsibility for errors.
Even though many tests have shown that the transferred data is not corrupted it is still possible that the transferred data may be unusable.
Download
USB Accelerator 1.0 |
Last edited by DeadBeef on Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:29 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| R2-D2 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:16 am |
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Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 12148
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Another stunner from DeadBeef!
DeadBeef wrote: The CRC16 calculation is dispensable because USB chips ensure the data integrity by deploying the CRC16.
They really don't know what they're doing, do they?  I suppose this is something brought over from the serial comms.
Thank you for your hard work on this -- I can't wait to try it out! |
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| HydeTheDarkerSide |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:35 am |
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 5956
Location: Hannington Transmitter : Sony KDL 40Z5800
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Downloaded and ready to be copied over to the Toppy. Fantastic work indeed  
Many thanks
Before I go and test this myself, just wondering if you've already covered off my next question...
Is this performance increase the same %'ish in both Turbo and non-Turbo modes? |
_________________
Hyde.
[size=10:da1fd20a33][b:da1fd20a33]2x TF5800 All controlled with Harmony Ultimate [/b:da1fd20a33], TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -RSy+BmC0CbCfCtDsEgEmEvFsGIMPePsR0ScUUuWfXZ
TAPs: PcControl B1.3; EPG2MEI v0.96; Font Manager 1.0d; Extend v1.7; SecCache (UK) v0.4; EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; MyInfo B5.6; MyStuff 6.5 RC2;
[color=blue:da1fd20a33]MyStuff Links: http://www.toppy.org.uk/~mystuff/index.shtml[/color:da1fd20a33]
Sig generated by MyInfo on 11/10/13[/size:da1fd20a33] |
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| EMJB |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:41 am |
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Joined: 08 Jul 2005
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Location: Maldon Essex
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HydeTheDarkerSide wrote: Is this performance increase the same %'ish in both Turbo and non-Turbo modes?
Somewhat of a red herring, but I find non-turbo mode leads to crashes on large file with 5.13.55, so never use it for anything other than TAP loading, and transferring ini files, screen dumps, etc. However I suppose there is a remote chance this will fix that crashing too!
EMJB |
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| glenmcfar |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:51 am |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: Dundonald, Ayrshire, Scotland
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| Can I just ask if this is patched from Aldarin's Vista-friendly dll, or the original Topfield Vista-nasty dll? |
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H/W: TF5800 | URC-7555 | Asus | Best Firmware Ever!
A/S: SecCacheUK, EitSub, EPG2MEI, Display, Extend, QuickJump, FontManager, TapLauncher, MyStuff
T/L: TapCommander, Surfer, MeiSearch, MediaManager | HDFW, CutAds, Sudoku |
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| DeadBeef |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:21 am |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2006
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HydeTheDarkerSide wrote: Is this performance increase the same %'ish in both Turbo and non-Turbo modes?
glenmcfar wrote: Can I just ask if this is patched from Aldarin's Vista-friendly dll, or the original Topfield Vista-nasty dll? |
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| R2-D2 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:48 am |
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A quick test and it works great! (I'm wondering now if there's even more than could be pushed out of the firmware -- although I thought the EMMA2 chipset had a limit on the USB at 1.2Mbps...)
Major things that need an update to cope with this are puppy and ftpd-topfield.
Oh, and is it my imagination or did replacing the TfDll.dll give an improvement all by itself?  |
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| jumbo |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:53 am |
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| Since CRC16 is not performed does it mean that it is possible that transferred files may contain incorrect data? Or is it not needed in this case anyway. |
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| DeadBeef |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:03 pm |
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R2-D2 wrote: A quick test and it works great! (I'm wondering now if there's even more than could be pushed out of the firmware -- although I thought the EMMA2 chipset had a limit on the USB at 1.2Mbps...)
PLX (NetChip) specified in an application note for uPD61130 a maximum transfer rate of 11 MB/s. We are at approximately 25% of it.
In my opinion the major bottleneck in the Topfield's USB protocol is the acknowledgement handling. I assume the transfer rate could be twice as high if the ACKs could be omited or being handled similar to the moving window like in TCP.
R2-D2 wrote:
Oh, and is it my imagination or did replacing the TfDll.dll give an improvement all by itself?
Quote: Since CRC16 is not performed does it mean that it is possible that transferred files may contain incorrect data? Or is it not needed in this case anyway. |
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| R2-D2 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:05 pm |
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jumbo wrote: Since CRC16 is not performed does it mean that it is possible that transferred files may contain incorrect data?
No, the USB protocol includes CRC checks, so it's completely unnecessary. Like I mentioned above, I think it's just been brought over from the serial comms code. (Where's the DOH! emoticon?) |
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| danb77 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:51 pm |
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Joined: 20 Nov 2005
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DeadBeef wrote:
[*]MacTF (with slightly changed settings)
What are the changes which need to be made? |
_________________
TF5800, IA On, TS On, F/W: 13.65AbBfBmBqC0CeCkCpCwCyDeEcEeEfEpErEsEvFFlFmFsGmHHeIKtMMhNfOtPPcPePfPsRRaReRhRpRsSScSdSlSrStSyT2TaTdTeTfTpTsUUuUxVrWfXpXwZXl
TAPs: SDS V1.3d; Extend v1.7; TF5000 Display v1.53; QuickJump 1.69; MyStuff 6.0; Tap Launcher 3.10; Font Manager 1.0d; TAP Commander 1.34; WSSkiller V2.12d; Power Manager v1.2; UK Subtitle 1.8; SecCache (UK) v0.4; EIT Sub v0.6; MyInfo B4.0; EPG2MEI v0.93e;
Sig generated by MyInfo TAP on 21/9/09 |
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| malc |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:00 pm |
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Joined: 08 May 2005
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| If the USB chips include CRC then how come the humax USB transfer is so error prone? It is meant to be a weak point, so much so that someone has written a program to compare 2 downloaded files and make one good one. If usb is inherrently error free why isn't it for the humax? |
_________________
TF5800, F/W: 5.13.65T 14/4/2009 -SyTeXp+CwEmMOtR2ReScTdUUuXZXl
TAPs: Archive v1.0a; TAP Commander 1.34; UK Auto Scheduler v0.73; UK Timers v1.2a; QuickJump 1.72; Matrix Screensaver V1.7; TF5000 Display v1.53; PruneEPG 1.0; MyInfo B5.6;
Sig generated by MyInfo on 10/4/19 |
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| DeadBeef |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:24 pm |
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malc wrote: If the USB chips include CRC then how come the humax USB transfer is so error prone? It is meant to be a weak point, so much so that someone has written a program to compare 2 downloaded files and make one good one. If usb is inherrently error free why isn't it for the humax? |
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| malc |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:57 pm |
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Useful link. I can well imagine that the h/w works out the crc. I assume this flags any errors and the driver software resends rather than the h/w being responsible for resend errors. Especially since the data packet can be 1k.
The humax problem might be a poor driver. But if that is the case are you sure that the toppy driver resends bytes in error or does it ONLY look at the CRC it includes in the data block. If so then you could end up with something as unreliable as the humax usb. |
_________________
TF5800, F/W: 5.13.65T 14/4/2009 -SyTeXp+CwEmMOtR2ReScTdUUuXZXl
TAPs: Archive v1.0a; TAP Commander 1.34; UK Auto Scheduler v0.73; UK Timers v1.2a; QuickJump 1.72; Matrix Screensaver V1.7; TF5000 Display v1.53; PruneEPG 1.0; MyInfo B5.6;
Sig generated by MyInfo on 10/4/19 |
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| DeadBeef |
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:44 pm |
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malc wrote: Useful link. I can well imagine that the h/w works out the crc. I assume this flags any errors and the driver software resends rather than the h/w being responsible for resend errors. Especially since the data packet can be 1k.
The humax problem might be a poor driver. But if that is the case are you sure that the toppy driver resends bytes in error or does it ONLY look at the CRC it includes in the data block. If so then you could end up with something as unreliable as the humax usb.
Humax might also have a hardware problem in the USB interface. When the TF5000 PVR was introduced it had a very instable USB connectivity. IIRC it was a hardware problem.
There are lots of volunteers testing the modification. Let's sit and wait for the data loss complaints.  |
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