Re: CPU results on Freescale i.MX

[Christopher Berardi <cberardi%natoufa.com@localhost>]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 02:23:20PM +0000, Jonathan A. Kollasch wrote:
> Maybe use whetstone?  Or one of the various other benchmark packages
> that give a good overall number.

Except that the I still don't know which ARM port I would use for that system,
so I still have the original Ubuntu on it. And Ubuntu doesn't have whetstone,
or dhrystone, or really any good benchmark software (that I'm aware of).

I did run 'openssl speed' on it and the laptop (both running Ubuntu). The 
results seem to indicate that the laptop is an order of magnitude faster and
more powerful than the ARM system. Although, considering one is meant for 
more-or-less embedded applications and has significantly less RAM, I don't
think it is _that_ fair of a comparison. Now, if I had an ATOM to compare it 
against, that would be a more indicative comparison.


> This is probably NetBSD/amd64, and is thus using the SSE unit
> instead of the x87 unit.  I get similarly slow results when
> I'm on a x86_32 port compared to a x86_64 box of similar GHz.
> 
> Also, a Debian GNU/Linux/amd64 box fared competitively to a
> NetBSD/amd64 box for me on nearly identical hardware.
The desktop is running NetBSD/i386. I did have to check uname, because I know
I've been meaning to put amd64 on there (maybe this weekend now that I've been
reminded). 

This isn't the first time I've noticed that the desktop has a little more 
*zip* than the laptop. Personally, I think the combination of AMD + NetBSD is
a winning combination. ;)


> Also, does the i.MX 515 have a FPU, and is Ubuntu using it?
> Did you compile with optimization there?  That makes a huge
> difference on RISC boxes.

The ARM is running what Genesi shipped it with. It is, I'm sure, optimized for
HD media performance, not number-crunching (except where HD would require it).

Really, this ARM system is a complete experiment for me as I have never work 
with ARM before (other than as an electronics consumer).



-- 
Christopher Berardi
http://www.natoufa.com/

Be still, and know that I am God (Psalms 46:10)