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Kronos architecture, board specifications and what could be.
Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:25 pm Post subject: Kronos architecture, board specifications and what could be.
Today, I decided to do a little research regarding the kronos mainboard and user requests including my own for a 64bit OS.
I’d like to draw your attention to the following 3 links which demonstrate the technical and provisional specifications of the kronos at time of builds, as stated by each version of the kronos to current.
Also, for those in the UK or cold climates during the winter season, be aware that the SSD’s installed freeze, this is why sometimes your kronos may not boot. This isn’t a fault with the kronos, in fact, any workstation on the market running an SSD in a large, open case, suffers this fault. Please don’t think your SSD has failed, it’s not the case. SSD drives have operating temperatures and as a result are sensitive to temperature on power-up. After all, electrical signals also rely on a waste process of heat transfer and as a result, warm up components to working temperatures.
I’ve noticed this on my two machines where either or both don’t boot first time when temperatures within the house are below 4C etc. so, just be mindful of this.
With reference to the kronos 2 and the specification of the memory modules and slot. availability, it does seem a little odd that installing a single 4GB DIMM in slot 1 when the board maxes at a theoretical 4gb limit, seems a litle odd that a single channel will support a 4GB DIMM when the logical behaviour of supported ram for most boards is to spread the RAM handling over both channels / slots. But, as the later board for the kronos 2 dictates, 1 Channel for Ram over 2 slots. It’s also notable that this mainboard supports a max 1.86ghz cpu (soldered in) and as such not a bad board to use.
I refer to an article who’s author I have to thank for this information where it comes to the integration of more modern hardware.
Using a desktop / ITX board with higher CPU spec, though doable, would require significant increase in power demands from the PSU, also thermal efficiency and cooling. However, having noticed how cold an SSD can get to the point of initial read failure , restart, then read, it would be a good idea for korg to use in certain places a thermal lining to keep temperatures inside the kronos as stable as possible. Don’t forget that rather large, full length grill at the top to rear, though this draws air in and out, it also in cold temperatures creates an internal cold spot. So, keeping your studio warm or workspace warm is important here.
The way to leverage best performance, 64 bit architecture, etc would be on the bases of an adapted laptop board which sports the same / similar spec to that of a desktop workstation.
Some of this is common sense, but common sense is not always common.
Kronos operating temperature range, specified in the Operations Guide, is +5 to +40degC, no condensation. The original Kronos spec was +5 to +35degC, no condensation (the original K was fitted with a HDD, and later with an SSD).
(the original K was fitted with a HDD, and later with an SSD).
Mine came with a 30GB Toshiba drive.
you are correct. the first Kronos models were supplied with a toshiba 30gb SSD. Oasys workstations were installed with HDD drives but could be upgraded to SSD's though at the time the performance for SSD's was not worth it.
Life is too short to worry about endless issues. Love and be loved, conquer all that can be achieved. Oh... Yes.... Farts can be considered musical instruments too!
I've no complaint with build or design of the kronos, far from it. My post was really to give some food for thought. like as an example as it's not really given as detail, SATA 3 drives are not fully supported as the boards use SATA II spec, newer SSD's running Sata 3 cannot drop to Sata II spec, so will bottlenack at sata 1 spec meaning that performance is degraded further in data handling on either sata channel 0 or 1 respectively. OK my temperature matters aren't really a matter, so to me that's not really much of a bother, I keep a regular check on things.
My points were expanded on the website author's article to give some ideas of where the kronos could go next. Matters like SSD drive access doesn't cost much at all if bay brackets were inserted to the rear like server / host drive ports used on rack servers, etc, things like this are doable, viable options, there's a lot of scope that wouldn't cost as much.
anyway, enough from me on that, just thought I'd write the post to help some users trying to understand the issue of 64 bit OS support and RAM matters more than anything.