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SSD performance gain

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shaiko

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Hello,

For the people here that actually tried it...
Being all other things equal - what is the performance gain in running FPGA synthesis and simulation on a computer with an SSD compared to one with an HDD?
 

Hi,

it depends.
On a system with much system RAM and good cache at the HDD you won´t see much improvement.
But when there is low system memory and small HDD cache then the improvement will be huge.

Klaus
 
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    shaiko

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In my experience synthesis, virtually no improvement on the same system, though reading and writing out the design files takes more time on the HDD.

Simulation, definite improvement when using an SSD if you are debugging and need a wlf (waveform window data file).

This is empirical results from the windows 7 system I had at work, which had a large SSD and a 10K RPM HDD.
 
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    shaiko

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IIRC, vivado loads the design into memory before doing synthesis. So I wouldn't expect much difference for synthesis.
 
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    shaiko

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An SSD makes the whole computer feel faster and is the best upgrade you can make. Areas that show the largest improvement are start up, windows update and loading large programs. However don't underestimate the general improvement in responsiveness. Not all SSD drives are equal some are comparably slow, get the fastest you can afford such as a Samsung.
When I upgraded to a SSD I was not that impressed with the improvement in speed, however going back to a hard drive has become intolerable to me as I have got used to having a SSD.
Running a small program that does not use the hard drive much such as your application will show little improvement.
 
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Simulation is surely faster if your project files are on an SSD.
Moreover if you are using some version control system (SVN, Git) for your project and working with other developers, then definitely SSD will be a better place to store your work.
 

if you have to change your drive , please go with an ssd you won't regret it.
except if you need more than 2Tb of space, it will cost a lot more than a hdd.
the ssd goes 10x faster than an hdd, so everytime your computer makes disk access it goes 10x faster.
please be aware that all computers wait all day long for datas coming from the drive. except when they simulate or calculate.
but most of the time, all impression will be more speed.
if you come back to an hdd later, or on a fusion drive (hdd with small ssd cache) you immediately feel that it is slower.
 

Are we talking about build servers or local desktops? Really, if the company is serious about FPGAs there should be build servers. You can mesh together workstations, but I had better experiences with build servers.
 

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