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12-Core ARM Cluster Beats Intel Atom, AMD Fusion

Posted by timothy on from the 16-pages-seriously dept.

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.

5 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Were they bored? by davydagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    half the fun is building it. good excuse to build a 12-core mini-cluster. I think this is nothing more than some nerd showing off his latest toy. Which is not a bad thing. this 12-core'd cluster might be useful, at the very least proof of concept stage. I could imagine the uses for a highly paralleled mini-super-computer on an affordable budget.

  2. Article summary says it all by Glasswire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Besides winning on performance and efficiency, the Core i7 3770K system would cost less than the cost of a six PandaBoard ES cluster setup."
    So a single Ivy Bridge system, which takes up much less rack space, no cluster network ports, outperforms and costs less than the ARM cluster. Is that the definition of a no-brainer?

    1. Re:Article summary says it all by Noughmad · · Score: 5, Funny

      And yet Phoronix managed to squeeze 16 pages out of it. Good job.

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  3. Re:Were they bored? by Idbar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the confusion is that people think Atom is analog to ARM. People keep confusing the fact that ARM is a core processor and Atom an SoC solution. It makes no sense comparing apples to oranges. An appropriate comparison would be an SoC from TI, Qualcomm or Samsung.

  4. Re:Loses to Ivy Bridge by wbr1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

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