Single Board Computers - Boinc Benchmarks

[Dirk Broer]

Me single core hearties:

Raspberry Pi Model B+
CPU : A Broadcom ARMv6-compatible processor ARM11, rev 7 (v6l), in short ARM1176JZF-S aka BCM2835
Features : swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, java/jazelle, tls

1. Raspberry Pi B+@700MHz (Stock speed)
   222 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   926 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Raspberry Pi B+@800MHz (Modest overclock)
   266 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1073 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
3. Raspberry Pi B+@950MHz (High overclock)
   323 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1275 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
4. Raspberry Pi B+@1000MHz (Turbo!)
   338 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1355 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

These MIPS values are my own

Beaglebone Black, Rev.C
CPU : A Texas Instruments ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A8, rev 2 (v7l) aka Sitara AM3358BZCZ100
Features : swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, thumbEE, NEON, VFPv3, tls

1. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Beagle Debian
   184 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   2047 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Android 4.4.4
   277 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1607 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

These MIPS values are my own too


ARM11, ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 compared.
SIMD for the ARM11 seems a misconception, while the Beaglebone's Cortex-A8 actually reports VFPv3 instead of VFP Lite.
BTW: The Solid Run CuBox and the Solid Run Hummingboard have a Cortex-A9.

Me dual core hearties, one so far (Freescale i.MX6-based Hummingboard I2ex planned as Dutch importer won't sell quad core I4ex models):
Banana Pro
CPU : An Allwinner ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A7, rev 4 (v7l) aka Allwinner A20
Features : swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, NEON, VFPv3, tls, VFPv4, idiva, idivt

1. Banana Pro @1000MHz - Bananian
   463 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1911 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Banana Pro @1000MHz - Ubuntu Mate
   554 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1965 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

Me quad core hearties, one so far (Allwinner A31-based Banana Pi M2 and Amlogic S805-based Odroid C1+ planned):
Raspberry Pi 2, Model B
CPU : A Broadcom ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A7, rev 5 (v7l) aka BCM2836
Features : half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, NEON, VFPv3, tls, VFPv4, idiva, idivt, VFPd32, lpae, evtstrm

1. Raspberry Pi 2@900MHz
   441 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1704 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Raspberry Pi 2@1000MHz
   491 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1895 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

These MIPS values I had taken from a L'Alliance Francophone forum. Quite suspicious: the posting dates from July 2013, long before the RasPi 2 hit the market.
Much to my chagrin I could not obtain these values myself. Even when OC-ing to 1000 MHz I got stuck at 292 MIPS floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and 1143 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU: worse than the RasPi 1 at that speed! So I searched for an answer. It seemed that those froggies must have had installed Debian Jessie -but in 2013?- in order to get the NEON capabilities of the RasPi2....but installing Jessie got me no further than 293 MIPS floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and 1163 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU -and a more up-to-date BOINC client (7.4.23).

After a while my Raspi2 hickupped and refused to work. As my work as DHL courier took a forever greater part of my working days, I was unable to change this until one free evening. Through Synaptic I installed some extra armhf related files and see:

Raspberry Pi 2@1000MHz armhf updated
489 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and
1448 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU!

Still not quite the values of our amphibious friends yet, but quite an improvement... 8)
Now to unlock the secrets of integer performance
Through Synaptic I installed some extra 'integer' related files and behold:

Raspberry Pi 2@1000MHz integer updated
489 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
1944 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU a nous les petites françaises!....

[Dirk Broer]

Kicking the Pi2 in the gollies sure did work: time for a Seti@Home WU went down from 110 hours to 52 hours

[Alez]

Thats a huge improvement
On my Rk3188's I got the most improvement from flashing a new kernel without all the google etc. bloatware plus binning the standard power / fire risks and replacing with a single quality transformer.

I really should look at the options for kernels again as it's been well over a year since I even looked at the wee beasties ...

[Dirk Broer]

I was so satisfied with the performance of the Raspberries (especially the Pi2) that I decided to invest some more into them.
So I bought two Modmypi Multi-Pi Clear towers (look at the 13/10/2015 review when you click on the picture!)

and a Sense hat.
All my SBC's are now housed in the tower, which is twice as high as the one in the picture. I hope to get QCN running though the sense hat, keep you posted.

[Janos (retired)]

All my SBC's are now housed in the tower, which is twice as high as the one in the picture. I hope to get QCN running though the sense hat, keep you posted.

Would love to see a pic of your setup Dirk.

How are you providing power and cooling?

[Dirk Broer]

Power through a 7-port powered USB-hub
(and there's one connected to the Waka-Waka),

Cooling by setting the Multi-Pi Clear tower on a side (to prevent the heating up of higher boards by the lower ones)
and placing heat sinks.

[Dirk Broer]

Should you buy a Raspberry Pi 3?

The main advantages of the Pi 3 are the build-in WiFi and Bluetooth and the higher Clock- and RAM speed.
The lesser advantages are the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture and instruction set, that unfortunately aren't being used in the present Raspbian builds, partly because the Pi 3 is presently limited to 1GB of RAM because of the used Video Core IV GPU (why don't they give each CPU core its own GPU?). Basically you have a 64-bit CPU on a 32-bit system with 1GB RAM, like in the olden Athlon64 days (even with comparable MHz...)

BOINC-wise the Whetstone and Dhrystone MIPS are roughly the same as with the Pi 2 [edit: not true, see below], just slightly higher because of the 1200 MHz of the Pi 3 vs 900 MHz of the Pi 2 (1000 MHz when OC-ed). As the Pi 3 downloaded four Asteroids WUs, taking 85+ hours (!) each, I can't go into further detail yet. I've set Asteroids to 'No New Tasks', so in a day or three I can compare the Enigma scores as compared to my Pi 2s. The sole Enigma WU that managed to slip through was finished in a little over 9 hours, comparable to my augmented Pi 2, the one with the extra Hardware Floating Point and Integer libraries.

2nd Enigma Wu went in 5.36 hours, a Raspberry record with me (previously stood at 6 hours). Since the Pi 3 has managed a 5.33 and two others very close to that. Over all it seems to have less variance in processing times than the Pi B+ or the Pi 2, where processing varies wildly between 6 and 12 hours.

Edit: It seems that the Pi3 is somewhat more power-hungry than its older brothers. When you've enabled the internal WiFi -one of the boards USPs- it definitely needs 2.5A, preferably 3A (A as in Ampere). You might see BOINC benchmark MIPs that have a twice as high value when connecting the Pi 3 to a 3A PSU as compared to a 2A PSU:

• 375 vs 711 BOINC Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per core
• 1240 vs 2469 BOINC Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per core

[Dirk Broer]

Beaglebone Black, Rev.C
CPU : A Texas Instruments ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A8, rev 2 (v7l) aka Sitara AM3358BZCZ100
Features : swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, thumbEE, NEON, VFPv3, tls

1. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Beagle Debian Wheezy
   • 184 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
     2047 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Android 4.4.4 Kitkat
   • 277 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
     1607 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
3. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Beagle Debian Jessie
   • 173 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU -must be software related
     2173 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
4. Beaglebone Black @1000MHz - Android 5.1 Lollipop *No Native BOINC possible*
   • x floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
     y integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

to be continued

[Silver]

Interesting numbers there Dirk, thanks
I'm surprised by the differences between the operating systems

[Dirk Broer]

Though the BeagleBone Black is getting a bit long in the teeth, there are various efforts to prolong its useful life.
Among the better efforts is the SanCloud BeagleBone Enhanced (click the image for more detail)

This has

• 1 GB RAM, as compared to the 512 MB of the BeagleBone Black, the BeagleBone Industrial (a.k.a. BeagleBone Red) or SeeedStudio's BeagleBone Green
• 1 mini-USB 2.0 client port and 4 USB 2.0 Ports, as compared to the 1 mini-USB 2.0 client port plus one USB 2.0 host port of the original BBB/BBR and the 1 micro-USB 2.0 client port plus 1 USB 2.0 host port of the BeagleBone Green.
• Barometer, Accelerometer, Gyro and Temperature sensors (optional)

...but still the anemic single-core 1000 MHz AM3358 ARM Cortex-A8, instead of a quad-core A15 or A17. Even a dual- or quad-core Cortex-A9 would have been better.

[Dirk Broer]

The latest BeagleBone Black now has Bluetooth and WiFi, but still that infernal ARM Cortex-A8:

[Dirk Broer]

Me dual core hearties again: one so far, and most likely it will stay that way.
A Freescale i.MX6-based Hummingboard I2ex was planned but, as Dutch importer wouldn't sell me a quad core I4ex model too, they can stick their overpriced hummingboards in a place where the sun doesn't shine. And they hurt, those GPIO pins....

Banana Pro
CPU : An Allwinner ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A7, rev 4 (v7l) aka Allwinner A20
Features : swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, NEON, VFPv3, tls, VFPv4, idiva, idivt

1. Banana Pro @1000MHz - Bananian (WiFi problems)
   463 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1911 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2. Banana Pro @1000MHz - Ubuntu Mate 15.10 (Unstable after upgrading from 15.04 via 15.10 to 16.04, and losing WiFi along the way)
   554 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   1965 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
3. Banana Pro @1000MHz - Armbian 4.9
   565 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
   2059 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

[Dirk Broer]

All my SBC's are now housed in the tower, which is twice as high as the one in the picture. I hope to get QCN running though the sense hat, keep you posted.

Would love to see a pic of your setup Dirk. How are you providing power and cooling?

The setup has drastically changed since I came back from holidays and found my hub nuked. That was the powered USB Hub, not a network hub.
I since have gone for a different setup, as I had already noticed that the Raspberries weren't getting enough juice (a yellow lighting then shows in the right upper corner of the screen).

So I connected a cellphone loader (that I got with my original Rasberry B+), and what did I saw? A red light!.....
In sheer panic I googled, to find out that a red light on a Raspberry just means 'enough juice'. So I bought 2.5A Raspberry PSUs for the Pi 2's and special 3.1A PSUs for the Pi 3's.

Then a 2nd problem occured: instead of the yellow lightning, I now saw a red thermometer on the Pi 3's (that had previously worked without heatsink, not needing one because not getting enough juice to run hot). That meant the SOCs were getting too hot...
So I connected a 12cm fan to a nearby computer and set it under the raspberry rack. Running fine since.

I may return to using Lego, to ensure the fan gets enough clearance without risking my fingers (or those of others).
I may even add another ModMyPi rack, so two fans will fit underneath (and I can add three more SBCs...).

[Dirk Broer]

There's a new Raspbian, Stretch (with a new kernel), so it is time to re-run the benchmarks (on a single-core Raspberry Pi B+ with its ancient ARM-11@700MHz):

New MIPS, please!

Raspbian version	Linux kernel	BOINC version	Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone)	Integer MIPS (Dhrystone)
Squeeze	3.1.9	6.10.58	24	799
Wheezy	3.2.27	7.0.27	222	926
Jessie	3.6.11	7.4.23	300	1212
Stretch	4.9.41	7.6.33	330	2500

Running it a tad faster @900MHz and adding some libraries I tweaked it to 376 Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) and an astonishing 7477 Integer MIPS (Dhrystone).....
Going all out @1000MHz it is 431 Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) and an amazing 9822 Integer MIPS (Dhrystone).....
I've even written Roy Longbottom about it

Benchmarks, schmenchmarks?

[Dirk Broer]

Lego rack has been built, two 120mm fans are installed. All set up for either a 3rd Pi3 or an ASUS Tinkerboard...
I've since updated my two PI2's to the new Raspbian too -I go for the two-to-re-too-2 award-, and the results (BOINC MIPS-wise) are again astonishing:

New MIPS, please! -part two

Raspbian version	Linux kernel	BOINC version	Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per core	Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per core
Jessie	3.6.11	7.4.23	364	1,292
Stretch	4.9.41	7.6.33	614	11,941

had to do the table by hand, as it is lost from the menu.

BOINC MIPS seem to be closely related to Bogo MIPS and presently go up like they're named Bitcoin MIPS...

[Dirk Broer]

BeagleBone Black, Rev.C
CPU: A Texas Instruments ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A8, rev 2 (v7l) aka Ti Sitara AM3358BZCZ100
Features: swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, thumbEE, NEON, VFPv3, tls

BeagleBone Black Boinc Benchmarks

Operating system/version	floating point MIPS (Whetstone)	integer MIPS (Dhrystone)
Beagle Debian Wheezy	184	2,047
Android 4.4.4 Kitkat	277	1,607
Beagle Debian Jessie	173	2,173
Android 5.1 Lollipop	tbd*	tbd*
Beagle Debian Stretch	226	11,779

*No Native BOINC possible*

Perhaps worth mentioning that under Stretch swp has disappeared and has been replaced with vfpd32.
WEP2 -which is what I am running on the BBB- is utterly unimpressed by the added integer MIPS and crunches on exactly as before.
To be continued...

[Dirk Broer]

The latest BeagleBone Black now has Bluetooth and WiFi, but still that infernal ARM Cortex-A8

They've heard me, there in Texas:

BeagleBone-AI preliminary specifications:

SoC – TI AM5729 dual core Cortex-A15 processor featuring 4 PRUs, Dual core C66x DSP, and 4 EVEs
System Memory – 1GB RAM
Storage – 16GB on-board eMMC flash with high-speed interface
Networking – Gigabit Ethernet and high-speed WiFi
USB – 1x USB type-C for power and superspeed dual-role controller, 1x USB type-A host
Expansion – BeagleBone Black (BBB) compatible headers
Dimensions – 86.4 x 53.4 mm (compatible with BBB)
Beaglebone SoCs compared

AM5729	AM3358

You may have to compile a special BOINC client -or even applications- for the Beaglebone AI to make fully use of the various components:

[Dirk Broer]

I've updated my two PI2's to the newest Raspbian Buster, and the results (BOINC MIPS-wise) are again astonishing:

New MIPS, please! -part two

Raspbian version	Linux kernel	BOINC version	Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per core	Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per core
Jessie	3.6.11	7.4.23	364	1,292
Stretch	4.9.41	7.6.33	614	11,941
Buster	4.19.50	7.14.2	634	15,719

BOINC MIPS seem to be closely related to Bogo MIPS and presently go up like they're named Bitcoin MIPS...

[davidbam]

Which one please? https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

I can try this on Pi3

[Dirk Broer]

Which one please? https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

I can try this on Pi3

There are thee variants: Lite desktop, Full desktop and Full desktop plus NOOBS (New-Out-Of-the-Box Software) and the software should be able to distinguish between all pies so far produced.
I usually take the full desktop and then start adding libraries to the kernel after installing synaptic up to the point that I have reached the maximum of MIPS.
The real proof of the pudding comes when comparing performance on the new 4 Gb Pi 4 between Raspbian and a 64-bit Linux OS like e.g. Open Suse for ARM, or Arch Linux ARM64.

BTW: Benchmarks for the original Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, using Buster:
1137 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
25507 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

[Dirk Broer]

It looks like the BeagleBone AI gets its AI from the two Dual-core ARM Cortex-M4's plus the two dual-core C66x DSPs.
Problem is getting those extra CPUs getting recognised and to work. CPU info for the BeagleBone AI only shows the dual-core Cortex-A15:

Code: Select all

$ lscpu
Architecture:          armv7l
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                2
On-line CPU(s) list:   0,1
Thread(s) per core:    1
Core(s) per socket:    2
Socket(s):             1
Model:                 2
Model name:            ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
CPU max MHz:           1500.0000
CPU min MHz:           1000.0000
BogoMIPS:              12.29
Flags:                 half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor		: 0
model name		: ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
BogoMIPS		: 12.29
Features		: half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture	: 7
CPU variant		: 0x2
CPU part		: 0xc0f
CPU revision		: 2

processor		: 1
model name		: ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
BogoMIPS		: 12.29
Features		: half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm 
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture	: 7
CPU variant		: 0x2
CPU part		: 0xc0f
CPU revision		: 2

Hardware		: Generic DRA74X (Flattened Device Tree)
Revision		: 0000
Serial			: 0901700a7b180b22

ARM itself just released a new Cortex-M, the Cortex-M55, which they claim to be the most AI-capable Cortex-M processor and that delivers up to 5x DSP performance.
Its capabilities can be enhanced by coupling it to their Ethos-U55 NPU
-which can also be coupled to the Cortex-M33, M4 -like in the BeagleBone AI- and M7.


This might be useful for e.g. the Wildlife@Home sub-poject of Citizen Science Grid
-provided they have the energy to wake themselves up and write a new application.

[jockmacmad2]

I need to exit from this topic too much ML. Too much like the day job.

[Dirk Broer]

I need to exit from this topic too much ML. Too much like the day job.

Reply on the AMD Users forum:

Ah wildlife@home, just how much video watching of nothing can you handle?

Me? None, that's where the AI comes in. AI is tireless...

The whole idea is to get some more grunt out of these little boards, and when they're stacked with GPUs, NPU and other co-processors it should be possible to turn them into the next credit boom -at least compared to the old SBCs...

[Dirk Broer]

BeagleBone Black, Rev.C
CPU: A Texas Instruments ARMv7-A compatible processor ARM Cortex-A8, rev 2 (v7l) aka Ti Sitara AM3358BZCZ100
Features: swp, half, thumb, fastmult, VFP, edsp, thumbEE, NEON, VFPv3, tls

BeagleBone Black Boinc Benchmarks

Operating system/version	floating point MIPS (Whetstone)	integer MIPS (Dhrystone)
Beagle Debian Wheezy	184	2,047
Android 4.4.4 Kitkat	277	1,607
Beagle Debian Jessie	173	2,173
Android 5.1 Lollipop	tbd*	tbd*
Beagle Debian Stretch	226	11,779
Beagle Debian Buster	259	17,536

*No Native BOINC possible*

Perhaps worth mentioning that under Stretch and Buster swp has disappeared and has been replaced with vfpd32.
WEP2 -which is what I am running on the BBB- is still utterly unimpressed by the added integer MIPS and crunches on exactly as before.

The moral of this continuing story: keep your OS up-to-date....

[Dirk Broer]

There's a new Raspbian, Stretch (with a new kernel), so it is time to re-run the benchmarks (on a single-core Raspberry Pi B+ with its ancient ARM-11@700MHz):

New MIPS, please!

Raspbian version	Linux kernel	BOINC version	Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone)	Integer MIPS (Dhrystone)
Squeeze	3.1.9	6.10.58	24	799
Wheezy	3.2.27	7.0.27	222	926
Jessie	3.6.11	7.4.23	300	1212
Stretch	4.9.41	7.6.33	330	2500

Running it a tad faster @900MHz and adding some libraries I tweaked it to 376 Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) and an astonishing 7477 Integer MIPS (Dhrystone).....
Going all out @1000MHz it is 431 Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) and an amazing 9822 Integer MIPS (Dhrystone).....
I've even written Roy Longbottom about it

Benchmarks, schmenchmarks?

While having some fleet exercises I put the old Raspberry Pi B+ under Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye @1000MHz, to be rewarded with 530 Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) and 13342 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU..... (BOINC 7.16.16 and Kernel 5.10.92)

[Dirk Broer]

The 'new' dual-core Cortex-A15 BeagleBone AI is already Out-Of-Prodduction (OOP) and has been replaced with the dual-core Cortex-A72 BeagleBone AI-64. What makes this board tick, compared to other BeagleBones?

The mentioned price of $175 is -in the light of the present shortages on the Raspberry Pi front- reasonable, but some actual webshop prices leave much to be desired -first of all: lower prices!
Farnell seems to be the white raven,
Digi-Key is more expensive,
OKdo's offerings are even more expensive,
Mouser still won't even sell it to the Netherlands,
RS-Online does, but seems to think I have money to burn,
Botland.pl "Completely gets the skin over your nose" to paraphrase an old Dutch saying...

The BeagleBone AI-64 should be able to bring some 1500-1600 daily credits at WEP-M+2, against 500-550 for the earlier BeagleBone AI and a meagre 55-65 for the BeagleBone Black.

[Dirk Broer]

The procurement section of the experimental division of my ARM fleet managed to scavenge a BeagleBone AI from 'Marktplaats', a Dutch cross-over between eBay and Craigslist! A mere 50 Euro, plus an additional 10 Euro for a 5-port TP-Link GigaBit Switch...
The 32-bit taskforce goes out again on Universe@Home, which runs better on 32-bit as compared to 64-bit (WUs at least available for 32-bit BH-spin, not for the 64-bit application. Paying rather well, too.).

[admin01]

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[davidbam]

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[Dirk Broer]

The idea is to post benchmarks here...