Raspberry Pi is a Low-Power, Credit-Card Sized Computer

[Nflight]

This is a different approach to get a computer to the masses even in the middle of the poor regions of the earth. The article: http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3715 :blob3:

[NeoGen]

I wonder if it would be possible to stack up a bunch of these and set them up as a cluster... how would it perform...

[Nflight]

NeoGen - Maybe your company you work for could use them to track the Heifers they ship to Africa, and find out where the cows have managed to move around too! Its just a thought or sheep, or goats etc. I am sure at that size a GPS transmitter can not add too much more to the equation.

[Jason1478963]

They are still selling out of these in many places. I have been looking at one as people have done many neat projects with them. There was a setup with 64 of these installed into a case made of legos. I have not seen any performance numbers on it though. One of the projects I found interesting was setting it up to do energy/PV system monitoring. They even mention the potential of a media player. Then there is the idea of using a low power PC in the kitchen for pulling up recipes online and shopping lists that are accessible by cell phone.

[Nflight]

Here is a link to the Main page of the cute little machine: http://www.raspberrypi.org/

[Dirk Broer]

Crunching on solar power using Raspberry Pi (http://www.designspark.com/blog/searching-for-aliens-with-a-raspberry-pi-and-the-sun)

[ClydeAustin]

Crunching on solar panel (http://www.shinesolar.net) power using Raspberry Pi

Thanks for sharing the link.. Hard to believe the facts of Crunching on solar power using Raspberry Pi

[Dirk Broer]

Hard to believe? He could even do a lot better after reading this (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/p/raspberry-pi-boinc-project-ive-created.html) I guess...

And, by the way, welcome Clyde!
Are you in possession of a Raspberry Pi (or another ARM device) perhaps?

[Nflight]

Welcome to the Team ClydeAustin, yes we like things odd that make some one respond like you did! Welcome aboard. :blob3:

[Dirk Broer]

http://i.stack.imgur.com/9Lac3.pnghttp://regmedia.co.uk/2014/11/10/raspberry_pi_a_plus.jpg
The main differences between B and B+ pointed out. I've left out the original Model A as it has only 256Mb of memory and no ethernet port, but included the all-new Model A+.
Nothing is preventing you from sticking a WiFi USB stick into the USB port anyway...better still: first plug in a (powered) USB hub

Let's look at the projects in alphabetical order (there are no 'J', 'K' or 'X' projects AFAIK):


Project
http://everyday-tech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Rasp_turn_around.gif
https://i.gifer.com/UiFO.gif


ABC@Home

No (http://abcathome.com/apps.php)

No (http://abcathome.com/apps.php)


Albert@Home

Yes (http://albertathome.org/content/brp4u-raspberry-pi-single-dm-tasks-feedback-thread)

rumoured (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/2013/01/alberthome-for-raspberry-pi.html)


AlmereGrid

No (http://boinc.almeregrid.nl/apps.php)

No (http://boinc.almeregrid.nl/apps.php)


AlmereGrid TestGrid

No (http://server1.almeregrid.nl/testgrid/apps.php)

No (http://server1.almeregrid.nl/testgrid/apps.php)


Asteroids@Home

Yes (http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/apps.php)

Yes (http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/apps.php)


Atlas@Home

No (http://atlasathome.cern.ch/apps.php)

No (http://atlasathome.cern.ch/apps.php)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Beal@Home

No

No


Bitcoin Utopia

Yes (http://www.bitcoinutopia.net/bitcoinutopia/apps.php)

No


BOINC@Fiit

No

No


BURP

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


CAS

No

No


Climate Prediction

No

No


Climate@Home

No

No


Collatz Conjecture

Yes (http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/apps.php)

Yes (http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/apps.php)


Constellation

No

No


Convector

No

No


Cosmology@Home

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


DistributedDataMining

No

No


DistrRTgen

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


EDGeS

No

No


Einstein

Yes (http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/apps.php)

Yes (http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/apps.php)


Enigma

Yes (http://www.enigmaathome.net/apps.php)

Yes (http://www.enigmaathome.net/apps.php)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


FightNeglectedDiseases@Home
(formerly FightMalaria@Home)

Yes (http://findah.ucd.ie/apps.php)

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Gerasim

No

No


GpuGrid

No

Yes (CPU only) (http://www.gpugrid.net/apps)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Ibercivis

No

No


iGEM

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


La Red de Atrapa Sismos

Yes (http://www.ras.unam.mx/sensor/apps.php)

Yes (http://www.ras.unam.mx/sensor/apps.php)


La Red de Atrapa Sismos Continuo

Yes (http://www.ras.unam.mx/continual/apps.php)

Yes (http://www.ras.unam.mx/continual/apps.php)


The Lattice Project

No

No


Leiden Classic

No

No


LHC@Home Classic

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Malaria Control

No

No


MilkyWay@Home

Yes (https://github.com/dcarrion87/boinc-rpi/raw/master/bin/setiathomev7-armv6l.tar.gz)

Yes (http://nativeboinc.org/site/for_users/install)


Moo!

No

Yes (http://moowrap.net/apps.php)


MindModeling@Home

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


NRG (Najmanovich Research Group)

No

No


NFS

No

No


Numberfields

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


OProject

Yes (https://github.com/dcarrion87/boinc-rpi/raw/master/bin/oprojectalx-armv6l.tar.gz)

Yes (nativeboinc)


Optima

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Pirates

No

No


POEM

No

No


Primaboinca

No

No


PrimeGrid

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


QMC

No

No


Quake-Catcher Network Sensor Monitoring

Yes (http://qcn.stanford.edu/sensor/apps.php)

Yes (http://qcn.stanford.edu/sensor/apps.php)


Quake-Catcher Network EMSC / CSEM

Yes (http://qcn.emsc-csem.org/sensor/apps.php)

Yes (http://qcn.emsc-csem.org/sensor/apps.php)


Quake-Catcher Network (Taiwan)

Yes (http://qcn.twgrid.org/sensor/apps.php)

Yes (http://qcn.twgrid.org/sensor/apps.php)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Radioactive@Home

Yes (http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/apps.php)

Yes (http://nativeboinc.org/site/uncat/downloads)


RALPH@Home

No

No


Renderfarm.fi

No

No


Rioja Science

No

No


RNA World (beta)

No

No


Rosetta@Home

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


SAT@Home

No

No


Seti@Home

Yes (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/p/raspberry-pi-boinc-project-ive-created.html)

Yes (http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/apps.php)


Seti@Home Beta

?

Yes (http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/apps.php)


theSkyNet POGS

Yes (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/p/raspberry-pi-boinc-project-ive-created.html)

Yes (http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/apps.php)


SLinCA

No

No


Spatiotemporal Quality of Service

No

No


SRBase

No

No


SZTAKI Desktop Grid

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


TN-Grid

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Universe@Home

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


vLHCatHome

No

No


Volpex

No

No


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


WEP-M+2

No

No


World Community Grid

No

Yes (http://nativeboinc.org/site/host_stats#project=wcg)


WUProp

Yes (http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/apps.php)

Yes (http://wuprop.boinc-af.org/apps.php)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


YAFU

No

Yes (http://yafu.myfirewall.org/yafu/apps.php)


Yoyo@Home

Yes (http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/apps.php)

Yes (http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/apps.php)


Project
Raspbian application?
Android application?


Are you confined to Raspberry PI's when BOINC-ing on ARM? Nope! You can BOINC on BeagleBone Black (https://twitter.com/ghalfacree/status/360137922630021120), Banana Pi (?), Cubie Board (http://petesblog.net/blog/comparison-raspberry-pi-cubieboard), HummingBoard, Odroid (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/p/ondroid-u2-boinc-project.html), Udoo, you can add yours as well!

http://nativeboinc.org/static/gfx/articles/screen1-sensation.png
If and when you are interested in BOINC-ing by means of your smart phone, please consult NativeBOINC (http://nativeboinc.org/site/for_users)!

http://nativeboinc.org/static/gfx/articles/screen5-sensation.png

[Nflight]

Raspberry has a new model (http://www.gizmag.com/raspberry-pi-model-a/34669/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=86b278d7ba-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-86b278d7ba-91749329) coming out at a Cheaper price with more features:

[Dirk Broer]

Just bought a B+ modelhttp://elinux.org/images/4/45/Rasp_turn_around.gif,
so I've added a few more letters to 'BOINC on a RaspBerry Pi (or other ARM-based hardware) - under construction -'

[Dirk Broer]

Just bought a B+ modelhttp://elinux.org/images/4/45/Rasp_turn_around.gif,
so I've added a few more letters to 'BOINC on a RaspBerry Pi (or other ARM-based hardware) - under construction -'

It is complete now! Scroll up (or down, depending on whether you see the newest postings at the top or at the bottom of the thread)
to see the complete table. Now for a monitor to connect to my Raspberry and when it's up and running I'll go test the Banana Pi and Banana Pro as well,
connecting them all to the same USB-hub, Network and KVM switches...

[Dirk Broer]

New models of the Pi keep coming!

After the Model B+, which brought us refinements such as four USB2.0 ports, micro SD Card and micro USB power connector,
came Model A+, which brought us all the functionality -and more- of the original Model A, but then at a lower power usage and a smaller format.

Now there is the Raspberry Pi 2, here together with the Model B+
http://content.hwigroup.net/images/news/Raspberry-Pi-2_Mobel-B-Plus_01.jpg

What's the difference?


It is faster (900MHz instead of 700 MHz),
It has twice the RAM (1GB instead of 512MB of the Model B+),
It has four times the cores (Broadcom BCM2836 ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core processor instead of a Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 single-core processor),
It is up to six times faster in applications.


MicroSoft has even promised a Windows 10 version that can be used on this Raspberry (http://dev.windows.com/en-us/featured/raspberrypi2support)

I can hardly wait for the AMD ARM SOC on a likewise board, as it is 64-bit....

[Nflight]

Lots of new things on the horizon. Is the ARM product anything similar to what we used to call RISC back in the early nineties? I see a revolution coming in tiny computers linked together to make larger formatted systems work better, instead of having big computers to do the same manual work. Or I hope I got that intent out correctly so you can understand.

Thanks for posting Dirk

[Dirk Broer]

ARM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture) started as Acorn RISC Machine

[Jason1478963]

I went to buy 100 but they were back ordered :(

[Dirk Broer]

I went to buy 100 but they were back ordered :(

You got big plans....

[Jason1478963]

maybe one or two with being off work at the moment.

[Dirk Broer]

You want an army of Pi's to earn you a living?

BTW: the new Raspberry, having a ARMv7 CPU, ought to be capable of running far more apps than the ARMv6 equipped original.

[Dirk Broer]

My B+ enters BOINC. The power of BAM!: just adding the accountmanager and the work flows in, projects are automatically attached.

Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.27 for arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Libraries: libcurl/7.26.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1e zlib/1.2.7 libidn/1.25 libssh2/1.4.2 librtmp/2.3
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Processor: 1 ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Processor features:
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | OS: Linux: 3.18.5+
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Memory: 435.29 MB physical, 100.00 MB virtual
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Disk: 13.32 GB total, 10.20 GB free
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Local time is UTC +2 hours
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | No usable GPUs found
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Config: GUI RPC allowed from:
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | No general preferences found - using defaults
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Reading preferences override file
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Preferences:
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | max memory usage when active: 217.65MB
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | max memory usage when idle: 391.76MB
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | max disk usage: 6.66GB
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | don't use GPU while active
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in the Manager)
Mon 06 Apr 2015 22:18:01 CEST | | Not using a proxy

Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:17:37 CEST | | Fetching configuration file from http://bam.boincstats.com/get_project_config.php
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:02 CEST | | Contacting account manager at http://bam.boincstats.com/
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:03 CEST | | Account manager contact succeeded
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:03 CEST | | Attaching to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:04 CEST | | Running CPU benchmarks
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:04 CEST | | Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:36 CEST | | Benchmark results:
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:36 CEST | | Number of CPUs: 1
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:36 CEST | | 222 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:36 CEST | | 926 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:37 CEST | | Resuming computation
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:39 CEST | http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ | Master file download succeeded
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:44 CEST | http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ | Sending scheduler request: Project initialization.
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:44 CEST | http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ | Requesting new tasks for CPU
Tue 07 Apr 2015 00:18:46 CEST | SETI@home | Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks

[Jason1478963]

Have you found any info on getting android to run on a pi?

[Dirk Broer]

There is no official support for Android on Pi and the B+, being a ARMv6 -architecture- ARM11 -model-, is not very well suited for it too. Raspbian is just fine for it.
I reserve Android for my Banana Pi's and the Beaglebone Black (working now!) - though I was slowly going nuts by the latter's refusal to boot from SD card when connected to a PC.
I may yet try and install Android on my Raspi2 though...

[Dirk Broer]

It has been a week or so since I got my first SBC (Single Board Computer, it has Mobo, RAM and CPU all on one SOC, System-On a-Chip) on BOINC.
It went all very smooth: load the Noobs (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/) that you can download from the Raspberry website (https://www.raspberrypi.org/) on a SD card of at least 8GB (I use 16GB just to be sure), insert the SD card,
apply power, let the system start up, install BOINC

# sudo apt-get install boinc
-and off you go.

As I use BAM!, all projects that I have defaulted there were made active on the Raspi, which included projects without applications for the Raspi. So I had to divide my boxen/hosts into groups. It will come as no surprise to e.g. vaughan that BAM! had some nasty surprises here when more than one box/host was in a group, luckily this did not affect the workings of the Raspi as it is the sole member of my group 'ARM11 on Raspbian'.

What is in that group?

A Raspberry Pi Model B+, running a Linux 3.18.7+ kernel (Debian Wheezy)
CPU : A Broadcom ARMv6-compatible processor ARM11, rev 7 (v6l), in short ARM1176JZF-S aka BCM2835 (for the full SOC)
Features (http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/43539/what-do-the-flags-in-proc-cpuinfo-mean) : swp (http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dht0008a/CJHBGBBJ.html), half (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-precision_floating-point_format), thumb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Thumb), fastmult (http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.arm.kernel/4578), VFP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Floating-point_.28VFP.29), edsp (http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/dsp-simd.php), java/jazelle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazelle), tls (http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dui0205h/CIAIIFIB.html)


I tried these settings:


Speed in MHz
Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU



700

222

926



800

266

1073



950

323

1275



1000

338

1355



At 1000MHz it is more responsive and, due to its nice red Lego casing, not hot at all. 344

My Raspi2 is the sole member of my group 'ARM Cortex-A7 on Raspbian'.

What is in the group?

A Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, running a Linux 3.18.7+ kernel (Debian Jessie)
CPU : A Broadcom ARMv7A-compatible processor ARM Cortex-A7, rev 5 (v7l), aka BCM2836 (for the full SOC)
Features (http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/43539/what-do-the-flags-in-proc-cpuinfo-mean) : half (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-precision_floating-point_format), thumb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Thumb), fastmult (http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ports.arm.kernel/4578), VFP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Floating-point_.28VFP.29), edsp (http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/dsp-simd.php), NEON (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Advanced_SIMD_.28NEON.29), VFPv3 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Floating-point_.28VFP.29), tls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread-local_storage), VFPv4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Floating-point_.28VFP.29), idiva, idivt, VFPd32 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Floating-point_.28VFP.29), lpae, evtstrm


For the Raspberry Pi 2 i got these values (before and after armhf update, and later integer update):


Speed in MHz
Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU



1000

293

1163



1000

489

1448



1000

489

1944



Though the MIPS values originally were less than the single-core Raspberry Pi B+ @1000 MHz, having four -more modern- cores certainly gives an advantage.
Updating the armhf (hardware floating point) and integer files gave a tremendous boost to the benchmarks, now to see what it offers in real life...
It is not just MHz and MIPS what counts when it comes to real-life performance!



Project
Avg. running time in hours
Avg. credit
Green light?
Orange light?
Red light?


Albert@Home

25

100

Yes

-

-


Asteroids@Home

gets stuck at 7% (Raspi B+)
100 (Raspi 2)

480

Yes

-

-


Collatz@Home

tbd

tbd

Yes

-

-


Einstein@Home

25

63

Yes

-

-


Enigma@Home

5

30

Yes

-

-


FiND@Home

tbd

tbd

Yes

-

-


MilkyWay@Home

tbd

tbd

RasPi 2

Raspi B+

-


QCN (Quake Catcher Network)

tbd

tbd

RasPi B+*

-

RasPi 2**


Radioactive@Home

tbd

tbd

RasPi 2*

-

-


Seti@Home

110

-

RasPi 2

RasPi B+

-


theSkyNet POGS

tbd

tbd

-

-

RasPi 2**


WUProp

3.5 (Raspi B+)
7 (Raspi 2)

7 (Raspi B+)
14 (Raspi 2)

RasPi 2

RasPi B+

-


Yoyo@Home

tbd

28.86 (Raspi B+)
80 (Raspi 2)

Yes

-

-


[]
Legenda

tbd=To be determined
*=Needs a sensor though
**=Will only run using Android as OS

- =
no data/not applicable

Green light=
Works out-of-the-box

Orange light=
Needs some fiddling

Red light=
Refuses to work



It appears that most 'native' applications have a problem of sorts -or that connecting through BAM! may seem pretty smart, but you'd better do it the 'hard' way,
as Daniel Carrion explains here at Burdeview (http://burdeview.blogspot.nl/p/raspberry-pi-boinc-project-ive-created.html). Worked for MilkyWay and WUProp, but at first not for Seti@Home. Seti started after a second round of fiddling though.
Most of the out-of-the-box projects can be brought into action by suspending all others, FiND appears to have run out of work for the Raspberry, OProject has been retired according to BOINCStats -they retired a lot of projects recently- and POGS has trouble with downloading an *.png image.

Looking at the table above though it suddenly dawned upon me that the problems are pretty much all with projects that I normally run as GPU-only.
Now the Raspberry has a pretty potent GPU -some 24 GFLOP as compared to other SBCs that mostly have to do with around 1 or 2 GFLOP-, but nobody has yet written a GPU BOINC application for the Raspberry.
So I may just need different profiles for the Raspberry (location in the project page like 'Home' or 'Work' or 'School' instead of 'default') that allow for CPU crunching of these projects!

Soon to be updated yet again...

[Dirk Broer]

Another step in low-power computing: My Pi2 is now running on a Waka Waka (bright light in Swahili) Power+ solar cell (https://nl.waka-waka.com/store/catalogue/wakawaka-power-wieckse-special_29/) bought using a coupon that was in a six-pack of 'Wieckse Witte' wheat beer,
so I got a 50% rebate.
https://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/e8/13/e81362fcf4eb01f123b6ce50b8773c25.jpghttps://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/b5/e7/b5e74746982a6f0b79bb62a90ca7d15c.jpghttps://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/0a/44/0a443e78c882d00409bbfc89fc1c7c40.jpg

It delivers more than enough power (2200 mAh), so I'll buy a black one for the BeagleBone Black and a yellow one for the Banana Pro (https://nl.waka-waka.com/store/catalogue/wakawaka-power_23/) soon too. They've even promised more colo(u)rs...


https://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/db/cc/dbcc6d1ec0a931f23f426f24c3b30235.jpghttps://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/d7/82/d78263b3c05d2588f357356c099505a2.jpghttps://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/dd/07/dd073813cf3d3042ec27211023f3e07a.jpghttps://nl.waka-waka.com/media/cache/41/3d/413de0d51cc95f5069a2beac325c501f.jpg

Nice detail: for every one that you buy another gets send to people somewhere on the globe desperately needing light and/or power.

[Nflight]

Interesting that they are now focusing on Sustainable Energy powering the small chip-sets. Nice post Dirk, thanks for posting!

[Dirk Broer]

As the usability of the Raspberry Pi increased with the advent of the Pi2, I decided to let go of the Lego casings and buy something more professional: the Multi-Pi Stackable Raspberry Pi Case (http://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/cases/multi-pi-stacker/multi-pi-stackable-raspberry-pi-case):

http://www.modmypi.com/image/cache/data/rpi-products/cases/multi-pi/DSC_0358-536x408.jpg
Takes less space and is stackable, as you might conclude from the name -I bought two sets. You can also lay it on a side, aiding the cooling (basically preventing a lower board from heating up the higher one).

[Dirk Broer]

With so many different versions of the Raspberry I'll try to offer a one-stop reference:



Feature
Model A
Model A+
Model Zero
Model B
Model B+
Model 2B
Model 3B


Size
85.60 mm × 56.5 mm
3.370 in × 2.224 in
65 mm × 56.5 mm
2.56 in × 2.22 in
65 mm × 30 mm
2.56 in × 1.18 in
85.60 mm × 56.5 mm
3.370 in × 2.224 in
85.60 mm × 56.5 mm
3.370 in × 2.224 in
85.60 mm × 56.5 mm
3.370 in × 2.224 in
85.60 mm × 56.5 mm
3.370 in × 2.224 in


SOC

Broadcom BCM2835

Broadcom BCM2835

Broadcom BCM2835

Broadcom BCM2835

Broadcom BCM2835

Broadcom BCM2836

Broadcom BCM2837


CPU

ARM1176JZF-S

ARM1176JZF-S

ARM1176JZF-S

ARM1176JZF-S

ARM1176JZF-S

ARM Cortex-A7

ARM Cortex-A53


Architecture

ARMv6

ARMv6

ARMv6

ARMv6

ARMv6

ARMv7-A

ARMv8-A


Speed

700 MHz

700 MHz

1000 MHz

700 MHz

700 MHz

900 MHz

1200 MHz


Cores

1

1

1

1

1

4

4


RAM

256 MB

256 MB

512 MB

512 MB

512 MB

1024 MB

1024 MB


RAM/Core

256 MB

256 MB

512 MB

512 MB

512 MB

256 MB

256 MB


USB 2.0

1

1

1(micro)

2

4

4

4


LAN

No

No

No

10/100

10/100

10/100

10/100


WiFi

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes


Bluetooth

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes



The lack of LAN and USB ports of some models can be overcome with this gadget (http://www.broadcom.com/blog/raspberry-pi/want-wi-fi-for-your-raspberry-pi-broadcom-adapter-brings-connectivity-with-less-power/): https://www.sossolutions.nl/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/170x140/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/r/broadcom_wifi_-_half_2_of_5_grande.jpeg offering WiFi and two USB ports for the cost of one -you need to plug it in.

The main attraction of the latest model -the Zero- is its tiny size; you can almost fit three zeros in the place of one of the full-sized models. Price difference -locally in the Netherlands ATM- with the more elaborate Model B+ is only one euro though.

Top dog is now the Model 3 B, with its quad core 64-bit Cortex-A53 CPU, which is more capable than previous models -but also probably even more capable after updating the kernel with additional ARMHF and Integer related libraries, as was Model 2 B.
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Pi_Family_Zero_annotated_1500-1024x890.jpg

[Dirk Broer]

I updated the table below with the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, a quad core ARM Cortex-A53@1200 MHz sporting 1GB RAM.

[vaughan]

I have 12 of the C1s and 4 of the XU4s. They run Asteroids most of the time.

352353

Note the use of metal "sate stick" skewers to hold the devices together :)

We bought the Odroids from the Korean manufacturer Hardkernel (http://www.hardkernel.com/main/main.php)

[Dirk Broer]

I guess you answered the Odroid posting (http://www.amdusers.com/forum/showthread.php/10660-Odroids) on the wrong (Raspberry Pi) page:icon_mrgreen:

Nice pictures though, I'll ask the wife to take a snapshot of my 'Pile of Pies' -actually more of a Row of Raspberries, and including the BeagleBone and the still inactive Banana Pro- with her iPad.

[Dirk Broer]

New Raspberry Pi family picture from RasPi.TV (clickable for yet even more detail):
http://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pi-Family-Photo-29Feb2016_700.jpg (http://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pi-Family-Photo-29Feb2016_1500.jpg)

Rumour has it that there is a Model 3A+ in the pipeline, as well as a Compute Module 3...

[Nflight]

I just found this in my in box, and I thought I better post it for Dirk to review (https://store.gizmag.com/sales/vocore-dock-a-coin-sized-linux-computer?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b9a08170b0-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-b9a08170b0-91749329):

[Dirk Broer]

It's small, very small:
https://images.stackcommerce.com/assets/productshot1-image/10792/a21aee697d974dc9893d683674ffc5a194390a90_main_hero _image.jpg
Specs:

Dimensions: 0.98"L x 0.98"W
Operating system: OpenWrt
System Memory: 32 MB RAM
Storage: 8MB SPI Flash (for firmware)
In-out voltage range: 3.3V to 6V
Power consumption: 200-220mA
Processor: Ralink/Mediatek 360 MHz RT5350 MIPS
Data rate: Up to 150Mbps
Dual band 802.11n Wi-Fi
Interfaces include:
5-port 10/100M Ethernet switch
USB
UART
Software I2C
Hardware SPI
I2S, PCM
JTAG
Over 20 GPIO links



But a 360 MHz CPU with 32 MB RAM looks to me only useful as an add-on board to e.g. a Raspberry Pi A+, Pi Zero, BeagleBone Black or Green to expand the limited I/O possibilities of those boards.

[Dirk Broer]

Should you buy a Raspberry Pi 3?

The main advantages of the Pi 3 are the build-in WiFi and Bluetooth and the higher Clock- and RAM speed.
The lesser advantages are the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture and instruction set, that unfortunately aren't being used in the present Raspbian builds, partly because the Pi 3 is presently limited to 1GB of RAM because of the used Video Core IV GPU (why don't they give each CPU core its own GPU?).
Basically you have a 64-bit capable CPU on a 32-bit system with 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, like in the olden Athlon 64 days (even with comparable MHz...)

BOINC-wise the Whetstone and Dhrystone MIPS are roughly the same as with the Pi 2, just slightly higher because of the 1200 MHz of the Pi 3 vs 900 MHz of the Pi 2 (1000 MHz when OC-ed). As the Pi 3 downloaded four Asteroids WUs, taking 85+ hours (!) each, I can't go into further detail yet. I've set Asteroids to 'No New Tasks', so in a day or three I can compare the Enigma scores as compared to my Pi 2s. The sole Enigma WU that managed to slip through was finished in a little over 9 hours, comparable to my augmented Pi 2, the one with the extra Hardware Floating Point and Integer libraries.

2nd Enigma Wu went in 5.36 hours, a Raspberry record with me (previously stood at 6 hours).

EDIT: By now the Pi 3 has all the scores in my top-10 of fastest Enigma WUs, so it is safe to say that on average the Pi 3 is the better Pi for Enigma.

EDIT2: It seems that the Pi3 is somewhat more power-hungry than its older brothers. When you've enabled the internal WiFi -one of the boards USPs- it definitely needs 2.5A, preferably 3A or even 3.5A (A as in Ampere). You might see BOINC benchmark MIPs that have a twice as high value when connecting the Pi 3 to a 3A PSU as compared to a 2A PSU:


375 vs 711 BOINC Floating Point MIPS (Whetstone) per core
1240 vs 2469 BOINC Integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per core

[Dirk Broer]

I saw to my astonishment that it was running six different QCN WUs, two Goofyx, a WuProp and an Enigma WU!
That's 10 WUs on a single-core ARM-11 SOC, try and better that! It is a pity the Mexicans have opted out of QCN, otherwise I'd be running twelve WUs now on that poor Pi B+...

With the new two Goofyx sub-projects that is 12 WUs on a single-core Raspberry, simultaneously

[Dirk Broer]

February 2017 family picture from RasPi.TV:
http://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Pi-Family-Photo-Master-Feb2017_700.jpg

[NeoGen]

That's a beautiful family photo :)

By the way, there' a new VoCore2 (https://deals.newatlas.com/sales/vocore2-ultimate-dock)... still very very small. :)

[Dirk Broer]

That's a beautiful family photo :)

By the way, there' a new VoCore2 (https://deals.newatlas.com/sales/vocore2-ultimate-dock)... still very very small. :)

New family members caused a new family photo:
http://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Pi-Family-Photo-Master-Mar2018-1500.jpg

[NeoGen]

And the family keeps growing... can it be arranged in a sort of family tree to see each generation and its descendants? :icon_lol:

[Dirk Broer]

And the family keeps growing... can it be arranged in a sort of family tree to see each generation and its descendants? :icon_lol:

Though the oldest records of the Raspberry Pi family claim that the arch version was round and actually tasted like raspberry, I'll confine myself to those models that were designed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
In the beginning that was but one Pi and it's model was..Model B. Not a bad beginning when you're constructed in the same country that gave us Terry Pratchett. Mind you: it was still 2012 back then.
Model B (aka 0002) later -2013- got a brother named Model A (aka 0008), which was cheaper and simpler by virtue of having no network capability, just one USB port and having no more than 256MB of RAM.
Introduced in June 2014 there was an illegitimate kind of offspring introduced that needed a Compute Module development board to be able to function, the so-called Compute Module(aka 000d), known for its hideous prices at the resellers, especially the combo of development board and compute module, charging hundreds of euro's for them. They can stick them where the sun doesn't shine! Actually a very painful experience, viewed by the GPIO pins...
In 2015 the youngest family member of the first generation (though some claim it was a child of Model A) saw the light: the Raspberry Pi Zero (aka 900092), that for the sake of cheapness had lost all that was not strictly needed for basic operation, including a large part of PCB surface.

That first generation has in common that they are all based upon the Broadcom BCM2835 SOC, featuring an ARMv6Z architecture ARM11 CPU and a VideoCore IV GPU. There are some minor variants/descendants worth mentioning of the first generation:
Variants:
Where there is profit there will be people or companies that will help themselves to a share of it, sometimes even without knowledge of the original manufacturer. In a klatch-as-klatchian-can the models 0003 and 0004 can be said to be minor variants of 0002, but China-made 000d -that came out in both red and blue instead of the familiar green- defies family resemblance. Revision 2.1 of the Model B (aka 00oe) was again UK-made, while 000f was again China-manufactured, but green this time.

Descendants:
Model B sprouted Model B+ (aka 0010) in July 2014. B+ gave us the basic form of the modern Raspberrie Pi's, including the four USB 2.0 ports. The model B+ was also manufactured in China, using a fitting red PCB and also reporting as 0010, just like the original.

Model A sprouted Model A+ (aka 0012) -we observe a pattern here- in November 2014. A+ suffered from dwarf-growth, albeit not in such a severe form as their youngest sibling(?) Pi Zero. It even managed in a later form (aka 0016) to get more memory, 512 MB.

Model Zero has, besides it very basic 1.2 version a 1.3 version (aka 900093, with MIPI interface), a W version (aka 9000C1, Wireless plus Bluetooth) and a sort of illegal WH version (same as previous but also with onbard GPIO headers).
http://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Raspberry_Pi_Family_A-annotated-15001.jpg
November 2014 family picture of the first generation, taken before the advent of the Raspberry Pi Zero.

The 2nd generation was kicked off by the introduction in February 2015 of the Raspberry Pi Model 2B (aka a01041), a model that would have made Hamlet proud -if he had lived that long. The Model 2B was a jump foreward, as it used a BCM2836 SOC, featuring a Quad-core ARMv7-A architecture ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and.... a VideoCore IV GPU. RAM was increased to 1GB and the speed was increased from the original 700 to 900 MHz.
After the introduction in 2016 of the 3rd generation Model 2B was produced in a variant 2B 1.2 (aka a22042) which used a BCM2837 SOC, featuring a Quad-core ARMv8-A architecture ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and.... a VideoCore IV GPU. This quickly introduced hybrid 2/3 version may be the reason that there are no further descendants and/or subversion of the Model 2. The (un)availabiilty of the BCM2836 SOC may play another role here.

The 3rd generation first saw the light with the introduction in February 2016 of the Raspberry Pi Model 3B (aka a02082), a model that got much lamented for not being named Model 3.14. The Model 3B was another jump foreward, as it used a BCM2837 SOC, featuring a Quad-core ARMv8-A architecture ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and.... a VideoCore IV GPU. Speed was increased to 1200 MHz, and WiFi and Bluetooth were standard onboard features.
Model 3B has variants produced in Japan (aka a32082) and in Brazil (aka a02082), the later made with a blue-green PCB.
A descendant of Model 3B is the Raspberry Pi Model 3B+ (aka a020d3) that differs in a still higher clockspeed (1400 MHz), faster ethernet, two-band WiFi, later bluetooth version and a metal-covered SOC.
The third generation also features a new Compute Module development board with a choice of two Compute Modules: Compute Module 3 (aka a020a0, with 4GB eMMC) and a Compute Module 3 lite (with provision for a SD-card)

[NeoGen]

That is an incredible fast pace of development for 6 years only, and not even covering all the alternatives and copycats from other brands out there. :)

[Dirk Broer]

The Raspberry family has grown! There's been born a triplet, listening to the name Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. The three differ only in RAM-size: 1GB, 2Gb and 4GB.
https://raspi.tv/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Pi-Family-Photo-Master-Dec2018_1500-768x838.jpg
Often imitated (look e.g. at the resemblance between the original Raspberry Pi Model B and the first Banana Pi and the Hummingboard) and improved upon, the Raspberry Pi 4B has addressed all its shortcomings in this iteration (https://raspi.tv/2019/raspberry-pi-4-launches-with-bcm2711-quad-core-cortex-a72-64-bit-soc-running-at-1-5ghz-with-dual-4k-display-capability).

[plonk420]

about time! previously was disappointing, but now, personally, it's "acceptable" to me for serious consideration for longer term use. still don't like it as an emulation device or media (more so on the video side) player, but is ok for other low power use

[Dirk Broer]

about time! previously was disappointing, but now, personally, it's "acceptable" to me for serious consideration for longer term use. still don't like it as an emulation device or media (more so on the video side) player, but is ok for other low power use

With the quad core Cortex-A72 the 4GB model must be able to run ARM64 OS-es really well, which includes Android.

[Nflight]

Wow look at this advancement = https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/24/raspberry_pi_4_model_b/ Dirk you have me very enthused by these small computers! plonk420 nice to see you on the forum!

[NeoGen]

Seeing these little boards getting more and more powerful with each iteration is exciting, this Pi 4 is quite the little board!

I came across this article though - https://hackaday.com/2019/06/25/is-4gb-the-limit-for-the-raspberry-pi-4/
Is there a possibility of an 8GB model in the future? :)

[plonk420]

Wow look at this advancement = https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/24/raspberry_pi_4_model_b/ Dirk you have me very enthused by these small computers! plonk420 nice to see you on the forum!

i'm here quite a bit (well, members lounge, around hardware launch or acquisition time!)

here's a RPi compute board:

https://turingpi.com/

would be pretty tempting maybe $20-30 cheaper and with RPi4 compute boards

https://i.imgur.com/ntLxkys.jpg

[Dirk Broer]

I jumped on the Raspberry Pi wagon when I saw the first model that I liked, the Pi 1 Model B+, or as the official name then was: Raspberry Pi Model B+.
Since that date -five years ago- the Raspberry Pi has made much progress


Model/Feature
Pi 1 B+
Pi 2 B 1.1
Pi 2 B 1.2
Pi 3 B
Pi 3 B+
Pi 4 B


Year
July 2014
February 2015
October 2016
February 2016
March 2018
June 2019


Instruction set
ARMv6Z (32-bit)
ARMv7-A (32-bit)
ARMv8-A (64/32-bit)
ARMv8-A (64/32-bit)
ARMv8-A (64/32-bit)
ARMv8-A (64/32-bit)


SOC
BCM2835
BCM2836
BCM2837
BCM2837
BCM2837B0
BCM2711


CPU
700 MHz ARM11
900 MHz ARM Cortex-A7
900 MHz ARM Cortex-A53
1200 MHz ARM Cortex-A53
1400 MHz ARM Cortex-A53
1500 MHz ARM Cortex-A72


FPU
VFPv2
VFPv3 + NEON
VFPv4 + NEON
VFPv4 + NEON
VFPv4 + NEON
VFPv4 + NEON


GPU
VideoCore4, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1080p30, H.264 high-profile encode/decode @250 MHz
VideoCore4, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1080p30, H.264 high-profile encode/decode @250 MHz
VideoCore4, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1080p30, H.264 high-profile encode/decode @250 MHz
VideoCore4, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1080p60, H.264 high-profile encode/decode @400 MHz
VideoCore4, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1080p60, H.264 high-profile encode/decode @400 MHz
VideoCore6, OpenGL ES 3.x, OpenVG 4000p60, H.265 high-profile encode/decode @500 MHz


GPU GFLOPS
24
24
28.8
28.8
28.8
?


RAM per Core
512 MB
256 MB
256 MB
256 MB
256 MB
256, 512 or 1024 MB


Pipeline depth
8
8
8
8
8
15


OoOE (out-of-order execution)
No
No
No
No
No
Yes, 5-wide dispatch


Execution ports
?
5
2
2
2
8


Super Scalar
?
partial
2-way super scalar
2-way super scalar
2-way super scalar
3-way super scalar


DMIPS/MHz
1.25
1.90
2.24
2.24
2.24
4.72


I'll try to compare this with likewise clocked Athlons


Model/Feature
Athlon K7 "Argon"
Athlon K75 "Orion"
Athlon "Thunderbird"
Athlon XP "Palomino"
Athlon XP "Thoroughbred"
Athlon 64 2600+ "Lima"


Year
October 1997
March 2000
June 2000
Somewhere 2001
Somewhere 2002
Somewhere 2003


Instruction set
x86 (32-bit)
x86 (32-bit)
x86 (32-bit)
x86 (32-bit)
x86 (32-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)


Speed
700 Mhz
900 Mhz
900 Mhz
1200 MHz
1400 MHz
1600 MHz


FPU
MMX, Enhanced 3DNow!
MMX, Enhanced 3DNow!
MMX, Enhanced 3DNow!
MMX, Enhanced 3DNow!
SSE
MMX, Enhanced 3DNow!
SSE
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
Enhanced 3DNow!, NX bit,
AMD64, AMD-V


This gets stuck in the integrated graphics. When we also take the production process into account (at how many nanometers the CPU die is processed),
it makes more sense to start with the lesser known AMD G-Series G-T24L, Microarchitecture Bobcat, Platform Brazos and Processor core Ontario.
That starts at 64-bit though, but it is single core, like the ARM11.


Model/Feature
AMD G-Series G-T24L
AMD Z-Series Z-01
AMD C-Series C-50
AMD G-Series G-T44R
AMD E1-1200
AMD A4-5000


Year
March 2011
June 2011
January 2011
January 2011
June 2012
May 2013


Instruction set
X86-64 (64-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)
X86-64 (64-bit)


Speed
800 Mhz
1000 Mhz
1000 Mhz
1200 Mhz
1400 Mhz
1500 Mhz


FPU
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, ABM, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, ABM, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, ABM, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, ABM, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, ABM, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
SSE4a, SSE4.1,
SSE4.2, ABM, AES, AVX, BMI1, F16C, NX bit, AMD64, AMD-V


GPU
Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen"
Radeon HD 6250 "Wrestler"
Radeon HD 6250 "Wrestler"
Radeon HD 6250 "Wrestler"
Radeon HD 7310 "Ontario"
Radeon HD 8330 "Kalindi"


GPU FLOPS
n/a
64
64
64
80
127.2

[Dirk Broer]

Recents SBC's compared:

https://z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103974211_1448334678671392_5975948404684974793_o.j pg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=07e735&_nc_ohc=xyFsY6Rbph8AX9Z_aVJ&_nc_ht=z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=20fa7d4788dbdbeb988841762e13dc25&oe=5F544F4A
https://z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103959863_1448334502004743_8462468892349412313_o.j pg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=07e735&_nc_ohc=CT7lfdOgo8AAX9HqPII&_nc_ht=z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=e223ee3942e58ca315e1b577e7de001f&oe=5F53C718
If I were working at Sinovoip (the makers of Banana Pi's), I'd start with the Banana Pi M5 -yesterday.
I want the next Raspberry Pi to have eMMC and/or M.2, just like its main contenders for the title 'best consumer SBC'....
Those 32-bit boards all come at around $80-90, so roughly twice the money of a 2GB Raspberry Pi 4. Of the 64-bit boards only the Banana Pi M4 can compete with the Raspberry Pi 4, price-wise, but loses on specs. Most interesting board is the BeagleBone AI: would it be possible to engage all CPU, FPU and GPU cores for BOINC?

[Dirk Broer]

Let's say you bought yourself the latest Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 4B with 8GB of RAM, what can you do with it? And what couldn't be done with earlier Pi's?

Let me first stress that the 8GB, together with the ARM Cortex-A72 allow for a 64-bit OS -e.g. Raspberry Pi OS (https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=275370) to be used to the fullest extent.
From the Raspberry Pi 3B on (and even the 2nd edition of the Raspberry Pi 2B) the board had a 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53, but with only 1 GB of RAM. The Pi 4B was originally introduced with 1, 2 and 4 GB, the latter just having enough RAM to be able to run a 64-bit OS (and more than enough to run a 32-bit OS). The 1 GB model has been withdrawn since a few months and a 8 GB model has now been added to the line. That is as much RAM as is there in the PC of my missus, and twice the RAM as in the PC of my daughter! (she uses a hand-me-down Socket 775 Dell that won't accept more than 4GB and is due for a Ryzen 5 upgrade, though with that new B550 chipset a Ryzen 3 from the 3000 series might do too...)

What projects have apps for ARM/Linux? And do they cater 64-bit?
*Does anyone have an overview for WCG? COVID-19 and MIP can be done 32-bit natively and 64-bit with a hack at least (https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,42424_offset,30)*
https://z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/101839409_1442569059247954_6993069225975742464_n.j pg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=1480c5&_nc_ohc=fKhouCAdRgsAX_oqTgL&_nc_ht=z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=bc2086756fab7f0a053f4d9a1482625e&oe=5F18FA0C
If you have installed a 64-bit OS and want/need to run 32-bit apps, you might need to install 32-bit libraries to do so.
In case of wanting to run 32-bit apps under a 64-bit OS you get a message like "This project doesn't support computers of type aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu" from that project.
You then need to add:

<options>
<alt_platform>arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
</options>
to the cc_config.xml file
https://z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/101839409_1442569059247954_6993069225975742464_n.j pg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=1480c5&_nc_ohc=q9zCIv6Nx9IAX8SQCG1&_nc_ht=z-p3-scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=62adb33ca31ac5c9b48d1593ac4f2c26&oe=5F544D8C

[Dirk Broer]

Interesting option to both stack and cool Raspberry Pi's, nVidia Jetson's, ASUS Tinker Boards or Odroid-C1's, -C2's or -C4's (https://www.amazon.com/GeeekPi-Raspberry-Cluster-Stackable-4-Layers/dp/B083FDHPBH):
GeeekPi's New Raspberry Pi Rack Case Stackable Cluster Case with 120mm RGB LED Cooling Fan 5V
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61jNSS7sMuL._AC_SY355_.jpg
One can always replace the carnival outfit with a better performing non-RGB fan...

[Dirk Broer]

52Pi -sometimes written as S2Pi- are developing themselves as the Noctua of SBC cooling: High-end air coolers with good performance.
https://rarecomponents.com/store/image/cache/data/0-2215-500x500.gif
After we had the Ice Tower cooler for the Raspberry Pi that shaves some 30-40°C off the Pi's operating temperature we got a specialized 4-pin Nvidia Jetson Nano cooler featuring a far bigger cooling block and two heat pipes, that even managed to shave some 40-45°C off the Nano's operating temperature!https://ebom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ep_0113_9_1-e1572598982241.jpg
As it uses a 4pin fan, just imagine what a 2cm thick Noctua 40mm 5V fan could do..
Their lastest SBC cooling product is a 2-pin low-profile Pi cooler, looking (at first glance) very much like the Nano cooler, but with a far smaller cooling block and a thinner radiator, that manages to keep the Raspberry Pi's just a tad cooler than the 'big tower' model can -partly due to blowing air down over the board itself too. Gone however is the possibility to add a second fan in push-pull combination.
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/6ce80548-e725-4329-a66b-e28884277ea9_1.a7bc7fcbd18d1c4f485664105b6ef90e.jp eg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=ffffff
What does this have to do with a quest for power? The most capable 32-bit ARM SOCs are eight-cores that all suffer the same problem: overheating and hence down throttling.
My Odroid-XU4's Samsung Exynos 5422 SOC sometimes runs as slow as 1100/1000 MHz due to down throttling, while it can do 2000MHz/1400Mhz on its Cortex-A15 respectively Cortex-A7 cores. And the same holds, due to less cooling, even more true for the Cortex-A15/A7 equipped Allwinner A80 in my Cubieboard 4's, that is advertised at the same speeds as the Odroid-XU4. It surely holds true for the [standard] totally un-cooled Allwinner A83T Cortex-A7 Octa-Core of the Banana Pi M3, that is supposed to run at 1800 MHz: all three octa-cores will overheat and throttle down. I have yet to hear of an enthusiastic Banana Pi M3 user on that account.

So we need more cooling, and 52Pi is going to supply it. It is just that they themselves do not know it yet. I will try to tie-wrap my way into getting their low-profile ice-tower cooler securely onto my Odroid-XU4 and my Cubieboard 4, as the normal way of fitting them will not work. I'll keep you informed.

BTW: There's one SBC that doesn't need tie-wrapping contraptions: The ASUS Tinker Board -size-wise a replica of the Raspberry Pi-. The low-profile Ice Tower Pi cooler ought to fit like a glove...

[Dirk Broer]

Can you get better cooling than with the Out-Of-the-Box (OOB) solutions of 52PI? Yes, but it takes some out-of-the-box thinking to make a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) extreme cooler.
When searching for '52pi Ice Tower' in Google I came across 'Sub-20$ DIY Cooler DESTROYS 52pi Ice Tower' (https://www.pieccentric.com/post/sub-20-diy-cooler-destroys-52pi-ice-tower), so before you order a 52Pi cooler, first read this.
The bloke who wrote it had thought of using a cheap Chinese northbridge cooler for PC mainboards when he couldn't find the holy grail of chipset cooling: the discontinued Noctua NC-U6.
If you happen to have one lying around: grab it and use it, either on a SBC or on a X570 mobo -or sell it.

The contraption built looks like this: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a27d24_3864eff228c54f9d934c4ec7007010e5~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_740,h_555,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/a27d24_3864eff228c54f9d934c4ec7007010e5~mv2.webp
Cooling performance was like this:https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a27d24_6a1166159ae042a2ae9656db27e12619~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_740,h_544,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/a27d24_6a1166159ae042a2ae9656db27e12619~mv2.webp
I'll keep looking for more extreme solutions...

[NeoGen]

Now that is some serious passive cooling, now we just need a case designed for that shape. :)

[Dirk Broer]

As the WEP-M+2 Project has congested, I had to turn my Raspberry Pi's to other projects, and now I want to replace my Raspberry Pi 2's.
World Community Grid takes forever on them. So, what are the options?

32 Bit
32-bit-wise I can replace a Raspberry Pi 2 with an ASUS Tinker Board S or an Odroid-XU4.
Advantages of the first choice is that I can re-use PSUs and casing and don't need an SD card.
Disadvantage of the first choice is the price: just short of 100 Euro's for a single Tinker Board S.
Would I buy an Odroid-XU4 however, then I have to buy a PSU and an SD card and I end up with a total of some 100 Euro's too -and that's just one Pi 2 replaced in both cases.

64-bit
64-bit-wise I can replace a Raspberry Pi 2 with a Raspberry Pi 3+, a Raspberry Pi 4, or an Odroid-C4 (vaporware-wise I might also opt for a Banana Pi M5).
As the 2GB model of the Pi 4 is just as expensive as the 1GB Pi 3+, and half of the price of an Odroid-C4, I feel very much tempted to replace my Pi 2's with 2GB Pi 4's and run 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS on them.
The Pi 4 has almost -no eMMC- all the advantages of the Tinker Board S and none of the disadvantages, the Odroid-C4 faces the problem of having to buy a new (12V-2A) PSU too.

[Dirk Broer]

So we need more cooling, and 52Pi is going to supply it. It is just that they themselves do not know it yet. I will try to tie-wrap my way into getting their low-profile ice-tower cooler securely onto my Odroid-XU4 and my Cubieboard 4, as the normal way of fitting them will not work. I'll keep you informed.

Well, some tie-wraps further I decided to buy a Jetson Nano -the 'cheap' 2GB model, as Simply Red already sung "Money's too tight to mention".
The earlier bought top-down blowing 52Pi coolers went to my two Raspberry Pi 4 model 4GB's, as it proved very hard/impossible to secure them to either the Cubieboard 4 CC-A80, respectively the Odroid-XU4. The complete 64-bit ARM squadron of my ARM fleet runs now on 2000+ MHz Cortex-A7x's (forgetting the in total four Cortex-A53's that are part of the two six-core Odroid-N2+'s).

For the Nano I have also bought the specialized 52Pi Nano cooler, but the first setback was that the included miniature torc screwdriver was only able to remove the two outer screws of the four screws holding the relatively big 6cm x 4cm x 1.7cm heatsink, so I'll have to do with passive cooling and stock speeds for the time being.
And while a Cortex-A57 is no Cortex-A72, it certainly is better than the two Cortex-A7 it will replace. It is also better than a Cortex-A53, so the 100+ Euro 4GB model is high on my list too, the Nano cooler will not go to waste.

Upon starting L4T (Linux For Tegra) you are greeted with a screen that the staunch AMD supporter will make thinking "isn't that the logo of the GPUs from that other brand? F#**ing nVidia?", while the more opportunistic user will think "isn't that the logo of the brand that works out of the box when installing Linux? Will I have CUDA running on ARM soon?"
https://developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/embedded/images/jetsonNano-2GB/getting_started/LXDE.png
I'll keep you informed.

[Dirk Broer]

First start gave a bit of a surprise: I couldn't install either BOINC or Synaptic, but after


sudo apt update --fix-missing

sudo apt dist-upgrade

I could install to my heart's desire.
Clinfo at first gave 'no platform', but after installing -amongst others- some nVidia and CUDA files I've progressed to two recognized platforms, GPU and CPU.

After adding to the cc_config.xml these lines:


<options>
<alt_platform>arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
<alt_platform>armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabihf</alt_platform>
</options>

and


sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt update --fix-missing
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt install libc6:armhf libstdc++6:armhf zlib1g:armhf libfuse2:armhf

to be sure 32-bit libs are there when needed and, voilá: Boinc starts getting work for 32-bit apps.

Because I was unhappy with the memory assigned to the GPU (a mere 99MB) when using the default 5GB swapdisk I installed and configured ZRAM via

sudo apt install zram-config
and rebooted

Jetson-Nano2GB
Starting BOINC client version 7.9.3 for aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu *so no need to have this as alternate platform*
log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Libraries: libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3
Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: NVIDIA Tegra X1 (driver version unknown, CUDA version 10.2, compute capability 5.3, 1979MB, 1343MB available, 236 GFLOPS peak) *CUDA! and enough RAM!*
OpenCL CPU: pthread-cortex-a57 (OpenCL driver vendor: The pocl project, driver version 1.1, device version OpenCL 1.2 pocl HSTR: pthread-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-GENERIC)
[libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4
Host name: Jetson-Nano2GB
Processor: 4 ARM ARMv8 Processor rev 1 (v8l) [Impl 0x41 Arch 8 Variant 0x1 Part 0xd07 Rev 1]
Processor features: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32
OS: Linux Ubuntu: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS [4.9.201-tegra|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1.4)]
Memory: 1.93 GB physical, 4.97 GB virtual *ZRAM can deliver enough GB's here too
Disk: 58.41 GB total, 12.05 GB free *This from a 64GB SD card

We get the following Benchmark results:
Number of CPUs: 4
1387 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
68511 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
Stock speeds, passive cooling -which gets really hot, BTW...I happened to have an old PIII heatsink of 13 x 8 x 5 cm that I've laid on the Nano for the time being.
P.S.: Good thing I did, it lowered the temperature with some 20°C...

[NeoGen]

Upon starting L4T (Linux For Tegra) you are greeted with a screen that the staunch AMD supporter will make thinking "isn't that the logo of the GPUs from that other brand? F#**ing nVidia?", while the more opportunistic user will think "isn't that the logo of the brand that works out of the box when installing Linux? Will I have CUDA running on ARM soon?"
I would think "devil be gone from my machine!" *sprays it with holy water* :icon_mrgreen: :icon_lol:

[Dirk Broer]

Now, if it were an AMD machine...(but even there, my GTX 1650 performs wonders Radeon can't reach), but is a mere 64-bit ARM system.
I would welcome any decent performing GPU on that platform, and the NVIDIA Tegra X1 is more than 10 times better that the GPU in a Raspberry Pi -at the moment.

I do hope that AMD will sell off their surplus Opteron A1100's -that are also ARM Cortex-A57's, just like the nVidia Tegra in the Jetson Nano-, coupled to a Vega 3 GPU, in nice affordable mini iTX boards in the near future.

[Dirk Broer]

Nvidia Jetsons for the future.

What should Nvidia do to make their ARM products more competitive? There are several strategies, but let's start with a sore point on my part: the price.
The 2GB Nano comes at a price halfway the 4GB Pi 4 and the 8GB Pi4 here, while the 4GB Nano is more expensive than the 8GB Pi 4 and even more expensive than the 4GB Odroid-N2+!
The next model, the Xavier NX comes at a whopping 500+ Euro's.....

My proposals for Nvidia:
Lower the price of the 2GB Nano to $35, the 4GB Nano to $55, so they can compete with the Raspberries. The USP (Unique Selling Point) might be the better GPU. CPU-wise the Raspberry Pi 4's are one generation ahead already.
Bring out a 8GB Nano. This to prevent messages in BOINC like this for my Jetson-Nano2GB:
Rosetta@home 4/9/2021 4:00:11 PM Message from server: Rosetta needs 6675.72 MB RAM but only 1879.68 MB is available for use.
Amicable Numbers 4/11/2021 12:25:21 AM Message from server: Amicable Numbers up to 10^21 needs 2861.02 MB RAM but only 1879.68 MB is available for use.
Even the 4GB would get this from Ralph and Rosetta, so a 8GB would be very nice, not only to keep up with the Raspberry Pi's, but to do meaningful BOINC work.
Bring out more versions of the Xavier NX, and lower the price. At this moment we only have the far-too-expensive 8GB model, make a 6GB and a 12 GB (16 GB?) model too, and make it a bit more affordable.
Bring OpenCL support for your GPUs to the Linux/ARM platform. CUDA works at least but for BOINC (and other applications) to really get things into gear, OpenCL support for the GPU is needed.

[Dirk Broer]

Just scored the holy grail of passive chipset cooling: A Noctua NC-U6
https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-39083765508394/noctua-nc-u6-chipset-cooler-3.jpg
When it arrives I have some SBC's in line, waiting to be tested...

[NeoGen]

Nice! I love Noctua, they have really good craftsmanship in all of their fans, heatsinks, etc.

[Dirk Broer]

I was really impressed with the quality, and ordered three fans too today.
One 5V 4-pin 40mm for the 2GB Jetson Nano, one 5V 3-pin 40mm for my Odroid-XU4 and a 5V 60mm one to go with the NC-U6, when needed.

[Dirk Broer]

The proper way (https://qengineering.eu/overclocking-the-raspberry-pi-4.html) to overclock a Pi4 is:

Step 1: Update the firmware

$ sudo apt update --fix-missing
$ sudo apt dist-upgrade
$ sudo apt install rpi-eeprom

to see the current status

$ sudo rpi-eeprom-update

to actually update the firmware

$ sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a
$ sudo reboot

See this article (https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/thermal-testing-raspberry-pi-4/) on the effect of up-to-date Raspberry Pi4 firmware

Step 2. Set the overvoltage, and set CPU and GPU speeds

$ sudo nano /boot/config.txt

# Add these lines:
over_voltage = 6
arm_freq = 2000
gpu_freq = 750

# 'Ctrl+X' to close the file, 'Y' to save the content, 'Enter' to save the session. (but without the quotes!)
$ sudo reboot

See this article (https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2020/02/12/how-to-safely-overclock-your-raspberry-pi-4-to-2-147ghz/) if you want to push it to 2147 MHz

[Dirk Broer]

Just scored the holy grail of passive chipset cooling: A Noctua NC-U6
415
When it arrives I have some SBC's in line, waiting to be tested...

and another contestant:
417

and another:
416

[Dirk Broer]

Nvidia Jetsons for the future.

What should Nvidia do to make their ARM products more competitive? There are several strategies, but let's start with a sore point on my part: the price.
The 2GB Nano comes at a price halfway the 4GB Pi 4 and the 8GB Pi4 here, while the 4GB Nano is more expensive than the 8GB Pi 4 and even more expensive than the 4GB Odroid-N2+!
The next model, the Xavier NX comes at a whopping 500+ Euro's.....

My proposals for Nvidia:
Lower the price of the 2GB Nano to $35, the 4GB Nano to $55, so they can compete with the Raspberries. The USP (Unique Selling Point) might be the better GPU. CPU-wise the Raspberry Pi 4's are one generation ahead already.
Bring out a 8GB Nano. This to prevent messages in BOINC like this for my Jetson-Nano2GB:
Rosetta@home 4/9/2021 4:00:11 PM Message from server: Rosetta needs 6675.72 MB RAM but only 1879.68 MB is available for use.
Amicable Numbers 4/11/2021 12:25:21 AM Message from server: Amicable Numbers up to 10^21 needs 2861.02 MB RAM but only 1879.68 MB is available for use.
Even the 4GB would get this from Ralph and Rosetta, so a 8GB would be very nice, not only to keep up with the Raspberry Pi's, but to do meaningful BOINC work.
Bring out more versions of the Xavier NX, and lower the price. At this moment we only have the far-too-expensive 8GB model, make a 6GB and a 12 GB (16 GB?) model too, and make it a bit more affordable.
Bring OpenCL support for your GPUs to the Linux/ARM platform. CUDA works at least but for BOINC (and other applications) to really get things into gear, OpenCL support for the GPU is needed.

nVidia brought out a 16GB Xavier NX module (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-xavier-nx-16gb)! And for those with a smaller budget who want to upgrade their 2GB or 4GB Jetson Nano developer kit there is also a TX2-NX module (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-tx2-nx). Those of us who have enough money might also want to upgrade their Jetson AGX Xavier with a 64GB module (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-agx-xavier-64gb), or wait for the AGX Orin (https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-agx-orin-developer-kit).

[Dirk Broer]

For those of us with interest in nVidias offerings in the SBC-field: they have discontinued their old Jetson Nano, Jetson TX2 NX, Jetson Xavier NX and Jetson AGX Xavier boards. The good news: They are replacing them January 2023 with Jetson Orin offerings. The one with most interest for the budget-wise cruncher are the Jetson Orin Nanos, so let's take a closer look, and compare them with the old offerings :
435 (click to make bigger)
You might need a new, separate carrier board when you want to boot the new Jetson Orin Nano modules: not all Jetson carrier boards feature the needed M.2 M-key for a NVMe SSD.

Those that have them deep pockets and were able to afford themselves a Jetson Xavier NX in the past can now rejoice a 2nd time: their carrier boards are able to work with the new Orin Nanos, but also with the Orin NX modules!
437 (click to make bigger)
Now that is some serious ARM computing power, we might even forget about the RK3588 vapourware.....

[Dirk Broer]

Should you upgrade your Raspberry Pi (or other hardware)? See the increase in performance (hurray), powerdraw (boo) and efficiency of the latest models as compared to the earlier ones!
462
(click on it to make readable)
2024-12-18: Updated with both Compute Model 5 and Raspberry Pi 500

[Dirk Broer]

For those that try the Pi 5 in 32-bit mode and that see this error message when their WUs fail

error while loading shared libraries: libm.so.6: ELF load command address/offset not page-aligned

If you find this problem, switch to the 4k page size using:

kernel=kernel8.img

in /boot/firmware/config.txt

[Dirk Broer]

For those Raspberry Pi 5 and 4 users that do not follow Jeff Geerling (https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/raspberry-pi-boosts-pi-5-performance-sdram-tuning) or forums.raspberrypi.com (https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=378276) too closely: free performance upgrades!

SDRAM Tweaks
To get the latest RAM speedups for now (this may be default soon):

Update the Pi's firmware to the latest version:
sudo rpi-update (confirm with Y)
Edit the bootloader config:
sudo rpi-eeprom-config -e
Add the configuration SDRAM_BANKLOW=1 (for Pi 5, you might also want to test SDRAM_BANKLOW=2 For Pi 4, use 3)
Reboot


NUMA Emulation
The needed patches required have now been added to the latest Raspberry Pi's OS kernel, so to use NUMA, all you have to do is make sure you're on the latest Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm, not Bullseye!)

sudo apt update --fix-missing
sudo apt full-upgrade

To check if NUMA emulation is working, run

dmesg | grep NUMA
and make sure it says something like mempolicy: NUMA default policy overridden to 'interleave:0-7'

You can tweak the settings further if you want by adding numa=fake=[n] (where n is between 2 and 8) inside /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt, though the defaults should be appropriate for most use cases.

BTW: The Raspberry Pi 5 is now available in all the same various formats as the Raspberry Pi 4: SBC, Keyboard and Compute Module.