jeudi 28 mai 2015

Price comparison of Raspberry Pi 2 and Intel Core i7 system

After we realized the bench-marking of Raspberry Pi 2 in solving a problem with integer compute the result showed that a system with an Intel Core-i7 is 8 to 16 times faster. So now, we have to compare their prices and find how many of Raspberry Pi 2 we could obtain with a price of a system of Intel Core-i7.



In final with price of two systems and their performances, we can see the same characteristics for two for same price but we have not enough information about assembling a network with many computers.


jeudi 21 mai 2015

Merrii’s H88 Hummingbird devboard

Picture of H88 Hummingbird (Source: linuxgizmos.com)


What is H88 Hummingbird ?


From Shenzhen (China), Merri Technology launched the H88 Hummingbird, a board based on the A80 SoC (System on Chip).

On the following picture, you can see the board with details :

Detailed picture of H88 Hummingbird (Source: linuxgizmos.com)
H88 Hummingbird costs $300 and for $1,300, you can have more with the Allwinner A80 Development Kit, which includes a touchscreen and other goodies.


Specifications


Here is a table, from the official page, listing the specifications :

CPU
Octa-core big.LITTLE ARM Cortex-A15/A7
GPU
PowerVR 64core G6230 GPU
Comply with OpenGL ES 3.0/2.0/1.1 OpenCL 1.1 Direct 9.3
Video
UHD H.264/VP8 4k*2k@30fps video decoding
Multi-format FHD video decoding, including Mpeg1/2, Mpeg4 SP/ASP  GMC, H.263, H.264 BP/MP/HP, VP8, WMV9/VC-1, Jpeg/Mjpeg, etc.
264 High Profile 4096*2048@30fps1080p@120fps or 720p@240fps encoding
H.265/VP9 1080P@30fps video playback
H.264/VP8 4K*2K@30fps video capture
3840x1080@30fps 3D encoding/decoding, BD/SBS/TAB/FP supported
Comply with RTSP, HTTP,HLS,RTMP,MMS streaming media protocols
Display
Support multi-channel HD display
Integrated HDMI 1.4 transmitter
RGB/LVDS/EDP LCD interface
Dual-channel LVDS 1920*1080@60fps
Camera
Integrated parallel and MIPI I/F sensor
Support 8/10/12-bit YUV/Bayer sensor
Support 5M/8M/12M/16M CMOS sensor
Memory
RAW NAND Flash controller with 72-bit ECC
Dual-channel DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR3/LPDDR2 controller,up to 8G
Audio
Integrated digital audio interface
OS
Android 4.4.2 linux3.4.39
(Source: merrii.com)

For more information, go to Merri's H88 Hummingbird official page by clicking here.
http://linuxgizmos.com/high-end-dev-board-uses-octa-core-a80-soc/

CHIP, the 9 dollars mini-computer

Picture and some specs of CHIP (source: Kickstarter.com)

What is CHIP ?


CHIP is a card-sized computer that can run ″real″ operating systems and is released at the small price of 9$. For 49$, you can have the Pocket Chip in addition, which allows you to use CHIP everywhere with 3,000 mAH battery (5 hours estimated autnomy), 4.3" 470px x 272px screen, QWERTY keyboard and GPIO breakouts, all of this in a pocket size.

Picture of Pocket CHIP (source: Kickstarter.com)

What is CHIP made of ?


CHIP has a SoC (System on chip) R8, from chinese constructor Allwinner, that features a one-heart processor (ARM Cortex-A8 technology) with a maximum clock speed of 1 GHz and a ARM Mali-400 graphics processor.

It also features 512 MB of DDR3 RAM, 4 GB of internal flash memory, a Realtek chip that adds Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n support, a USB port and a composite video output.
To mount more components, you can use its multiple inputs/ouputs : GPIO, I2C, SPI and UART.
Regarding power supply, it has a battery connector or you can use the micro USB.

If you want to help this project, contribute on Kickstarter by clicking here.

jeudi 7 mai 2015

Compare Pi2 with a computer under Windows 8.1 x64 with a processor Intel i7-2630QM at a 2.8 GHz frequency


Our teacher gave us an executable solving the nqueens problem. Here is the syntax : Nqueens nbQueens model nbSolSearched strategy
  • nbQueens is the number of queens.
  • model is the number of the model to use : we only tested with model 1.
  • nbSolSearched is the number of solutions we want to find. 0 means all solutions.
  • strategy is the strategy to apply to solve the problem, either we don't put anything and it's just the domain order, or we put 1 and it's the minimum domain.
We launched it multiple times, but we also did it with parallel executions by executing the Nqueens with the same parameters in parallel.
The results were too big to put in one table so you have to choose the number of parallel executions to see the associated table of results :
Single execution
2 parallel executions
4 parallel executions
6 parallel executions
8 parallel executions

Single execution
nbQueens model nbSolSearched strategy typeInfos Pi2(in ms) I7(in ms) Pi2/I7
10 1 0 0







Search Time(in ms) 123 17 7,2352941176




Performance(decisions per second) 108367 783477 0,1383154834




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 649792 1176704 0,5522136408
10 1 0 1







Search Time(in ms) 94 16 5,875




Performance(decisions per second) 121175 712119 0,1701611669




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 649792 1176704 0,5522136408
20 1 10 0







Search Time(in ms) 1072 165 6,496969697




Performance(decisions per second) 97840 632563 0,1546723409




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 920128 1578112 0,5830562089
20 1 10 1







Search Time(in ms) 5 0




Performance(decisions per second) 73093 448178 0,163089219




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 920128 1578112 0,5830562089
20 1 100 0







Search Time(in ms) 2785 418 6,6626794258




Performance(decisions per second) 93819 624248 0,1502912304




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 920128 1578112 0,5830562089
20 1 100 1







Search Time(in ms) 74 12 6,1666666667




Performance(decisions per second) 85424 501411 0,1703672237




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 920128 1578112 0,5830562089
50 1 1 1







Search Time(in ms) 17 2 8,5




Performance(decisions per second) 62059 381501 0,162670609




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 2239104 2979072 0,75161124
50 1 10 1







Search Time(in ms) 54 8 6,75




Performance(decisions per second) 66594 428399 0,1554485421




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 2239104 2979072 0,75161124
50 1 100 1







Search Time(in ms) 251 38 6,6052631579




Performance(decisions per second) 69862 452427 0,1544160715




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 2247296 2979072 0,7543610896
100 1 1 1







Search Time(in ms) 12 1 12




Performance(decisions per second) 11225 101742 0,1103280848




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259
100 1 10 1







Search Time(in ms) 13 1 13




Performance(decisions per second) 20860 187375 0,1113275517




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259
100 1 100 1







Search Time(in ms) 37 5 7,4




Performance(decisions per second) 54682 381821 0,1432137049




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259
100 1 1000 1







Search Time(in ms) 515 75 6,8666666667




Performance(decisions per second) 62793 426760 0,1471389071




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259
100 1 10000 1







Search Time(in ms) 5178 754 6,8673740053




Performance(decisions per second) 64945 446050 0,145600269




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259
100 1 100000 1







Search Time(in ms) 94355 13746 6,8641786702




Performance(decisions per second) 62122 426413 0,1456850518




Reserved Memory(in bytes) 0 0




Used Memory(in bytes) 5991680 6887168 0,8699773259