atspeed

atspeed is a command-line utility that allows users to measure the read and write performance of storage devices. It is commonly used to benchmark the speed of hard drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), and other block devices. The tool works by performing a series of read and write operations on a specified file or device and then reporting the resulting transfer rates.

Users can configure atspeed to perform different types of tests, such as sequential reads and writes, random reads and writes, and mixed workloads. The tool can also be configured to use different block sizes and queue depths, which can significantly impact performance measurements. This flexibility makes atspeed a valuable tool for diagnosing performance bottlenecks and comparing the performance of different storage devices.

The output of atspeed typically includes statistics such as throughput (measured in MB/s or GB/s), IOPS (input/output operations per second), and latency. These metrics provide a comprehensive view of a storage device's performance characteristics. When using atspeed, it is important to ensure that the storage device being tested is not actively being used by other applications to avoid skewed results. Running atspeed on a freshly formatted drive or a dedicated test partition is often recommended for the most accurate benchmarks.