12-Core ARM Cluster Beats Intel Atom, AMD Fusion

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix constructed a low-cost, low-power 12-core ARM cluster running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and made out of six PandaBoard ES OMAP4460 dual-core ARMv7 Cortex A9 chips. Their results show the ARM hardware is able to outperform Intel Atom and AMD Fusion processors in performance-per-Watt, except it sharply loses out to the latest-generation Intel Ivy Bridge processors." This cluster offers a commendable re-use of kitchenware. Also, this is a good opportunity to recommend your favorite de-bursting tools for articles spread over too many pages.

Comments

price much?

[Osgeld]

I dont know the exact model used but the first one I could find online was 182 bucks * 6, thats a grand just to prove a point (+ other hardware), hope it was worth it to beat a 60$ atom

Re:Loses to Ivy Bridge

[Noughmad]

With the EP.C workload on all twelve ARM cores, the average power consumption was 30.4 Watts for all six PandaBoards, which is in line with each PandaBoard burning through 5~6 Watts under load. When it comes to the performance-per-Watt, the EP.C test was yielding an average of 1.78 Mop/s per Watt, which was an increase over the single PandaBoard ES at 1.60 Mop/s per Watt.

Page 8 of TFA (yes, my quote was the entire text on that page) claims otherwise, that efficiency of the cluster is even better than that of a single board. I really have no idea how they managed that.

Re:Loses to Ivy Bridge

[wbr1]

Ivy bridge is more efficent in work done per watt yes, but ARM still wins for low power devices like phones because it draws so much less power. The fact that it does less with that power is moot, because it does enough and lets your battery last much longqer.