Re: [avrdude-dev] Bad programming speed on AT90S8535 using AVRdude

[Theodore A. Roth]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Brian Dean wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 06:20:00PM -0500, Brian Dean wrote:
>
> > I didn't try Jan-Hinnerk's patch on FreeBSD, but I tried your file
> > with the latest cvs and with your (Ted's) patch.  The result in both
> > cases is 13.02 seconds real time as reported by the shell.  AVRDUDE
> > reports 12.54 seconds of programming time in both cases, i.e., no
> > difference and seems to be on par with the STK500 and JTAGICE.  I also
> > verified this with the STK500 on FreeBSD and got the same result
> > (12.52 seconds as reported by AVRDUDE).  So, essentially, FreeBSD
> > shows no difference in programming time when using the parallel port
> > programmer vs the STK500.
>
> I tried this on a slower machine, a Pentium II 300 MHz.  It programmed
> the board in 39 seconds (parallel port) and 12.53 seconds (STK500).
> This is closer to what I remember the difference being.  Also, way
> back when I tested before, the 300 MHz machine was my primary machine.
> I'm now using an Athlon 2200 which gave 12.5 seconds for the parallel
> port, STK500, and JTAGICE, so I'm thinking this is about as short as
> the programming time is going to get, regardless of the programmer.
>
> However, I wouldn't expect that big of a difference in the
> timing. between the two systems for the parallel port.  Surely this is
> not a CPU bound process.
>
> Maybe differences in motherboard chipsets?
>
> I do note that my older system is running:
>
>      FreeBSD vger.bsdhome.com 4.7-STABLE FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE #0: Wed Nov  6 
> 19:01:57 EST 2002     address@hidden:/scratch/usrobj/usr/src/sys/VGER  i386
>
> While my newer, faster system is running:
>
>      FreeBSD neutrino.bsdhome.com 4.9-STABLE FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE #0: Tue Nov 
> 18 14:49:25 EST 2003     address@hidden:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/NEUTRINO  i386
>
> These are about a year apart.  If I get a chance, I'll update my older
> system to the latest code, just to rule out a change in the OS to
> explain these big differences in parallel port programming time.

Interesting. I'm on a PIII-450 here at work. I'll try it on my home
system (dual Athlon 1800) later and see if there is a difference.

I've digging on google for some reason why and found nothing. I also
tried tweaking the ppdev stuff in avrdude and came up with nadda.

Ted Roth