ARM crunching recommendations

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Dirk Broer
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#1 ARM crunching recommendations

Post by Dirk Broer »

As the hobby is expensive enough as it is, here some recommendations

32-bit
32-bit is on the way out. The bigger Linux distro's don't cater it for their latest (x86-64) releases and Android is dropping 32-bit too, as is IOS.
But you might have some special need for 32-bit, what to look out for in a tablet/SBC/smartphone/whatever 32-bit ARM device?
  • First: the more cores the merrier. A dual-core is more efficient than a single core, a quad-core is more efficient than a dual-core and an Octo-core is more efficient than a quad core.
    Haven't seen any hexadeca-cores, or I would recommend them.
  • Second: You need at least four Cortex A-15 cores.

In all my innocence I always thought that the 2014 Cortex-A17 was the best 32-bit ARM Cortex-A chip, but according to ARM the A-17 is mainstream, while the 2010 A-15 is high performance.
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Based upon this the Odroid-XU4 might be the best choice for your money, running your 32-bit Linux and Android applications. The productivity of my Odroid-XU4 is on the same level as my Raspberry Pi 4B's that operate on 32-bit Raspbian at stock speed. The stock cooling of the XU4 leaves to be desired -both in performance and noise- and it could do with a leftover chipset cooler with heatpipe and fan. But, as already said: 32-bit is on the way out.

64-bit
64-bit capable SOCs we already had some years ago, but 64-bit operating systems -and BOINC applications catering for them- were less common.
Now there is both 64-bit Linux/ARM and 64-bit Android/ARM, and we are no longer confined to the somewhat mediocre performance of the Cortex-A53 based SOCs. In the 64-bit SBC userland nothing beats the Odroid-N2+ at the moment, having a hexa-core Amlogic S922X that can be overclocked to 2400 MHz for its four high performance Cortex-A73 cores and to 2000 MHz for the two low power Cortex-A53's. Be sure to order their 80mm fan too with the board, that comes with an immense heat sink. At the moment I only have an Android equipped N2+, but I'll order one to have Ubuntu Mate or Armbian soon too. Using the route of adding an alternative platform in the cc_config.xml you can let the 64-bit ARM boxes run 32-bit apps too. At least: This works with Linux, it ought to work with Android too. And when in doubt, always go for the model with the most RAM. If you do buy a Raspberry Pi 4, make it the 8GB version, so each thread can have 2GB. I sure would welcome a 12GB Odroid-N2++, that would be able to assign the same amount of RAM to each thread though.
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For other 64-bit ARM devices: look out for at least four Cortex-A7x's. The higher the number, the better it is. And make it at least 4GB of RAM.
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Dirk Broer
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#2 Re: ARM crunching recommendations

Post by Dirk Broer »

With 2023 almost knocking at the door, I give my updated recommendations

32-bit: Ditch them power-sucking beasties! None of them reaches to 10.000 or more credits per KWh...
You can always set your ARMv8 crunchers to crunch 32-bit tasks via

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt update --fix-missing
sudo apt install libc6:armhf libstdc++6:armhf zlib1g:armhf libfuse2:armhf libgomp1:armhf libboinc7:armhf
to be sure you get all, edit you cc_config.xml to have these lines on a ARMv8 system

Code: Select all

<cc_config>
    <options>
        <alt_platform>arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
        <alt_platform>armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
    </options>
</cc_config>
Mind you: with the newest and latest upcoming ARMv9 SOCs running 32-bit taks will no longer be possible! (only applies when you are crunching on the latest high-end smartphone: Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-A715, Cortex-X2, Cortex-X3, Neoverse N2, Neoverse V2)

If you run a 64-bit OS on a Raspberry Pi 3, or a 4 with 1 or 2 GB of RAM (perhaps even with 4GB), be sure to install ZRAM as well:
add the following lines to /etc/sysctl.conf (and then enable in real-time with the appropriate commands.)

vm.vfs_cache_pressure=500
vm.swappiness=100
vm.dirty_background_ratio=1
vm.dirty_ratio=50

To enable these settings temporarily without rebooting, use the following commands:
sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=100
sudo sysctl -w vm.vfs_cache_pressure=500

64-bit: I set my money on the nVidia Jetson Orin family. They are, in a sequence from reasonable affordable to absurdly expensive:
  1. Jetson Orin Nano 4 GB
  2. Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB
  3. Jetson Orin NX 8 GB
  4. Jetson Orin NX 16 GB
  5. Jetson AGX Orin 32 GB
  6. Jetson AGX Orin 64 GB
Models 1, 2 and 3 come with a six-core Cortex-A78; Models 4 and 5 make that a eight-core; Model 6 has even a 12-core.

There's no RK3588 board that can shine a light to these specs, period.
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