Beaglebone Black

[Dirk Broer]

The Beaglebone Black, in its Rev.C, is a worthy opponent for the Raspberry Pi B+.
In fact the Beaglebone has more than an edge on the single-core Raspberries (A, A+, B and B+)
by virtue of its 1000 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, its 4GB onboard storage -and the USB cable that comes free with it.

Compared to the Raspberry you can save on the cost of an external SD-card and the USB cable,
and suddenly the price difference between the boads has -more than- evaporated.

Rev.B, which still used 2GB onboard storage.

Doesn't the beaglebone Black have any draw-back? Well, it only has one USB2.0 port, but then again:
you can use keyboard, monitor and mouse of any Windows or Linux PC to control it over the supplied USB cable.
And just like the Raspberry Pi A versions, you can make use of a USB hub when you need more than one USB port.

And like the Raspberry Pi, the Beaglebone has much hardware made to fit: there are shields especially made for the Beaglebone,
just like for the Raspberry Pi. There is e.g. a Logi Bone -just as there is a Logi Pi- to turn your bord into a FPGA tool;
there are Beaglebone to Arduino shields, so your Beaglebone should be able to carry e.g. a radiation shield too, just like the Raspberry.

So far the only thing that really sets the Beaglebone Black aside from the Raspberry Pi is the lack of a quad core development, a Beaglebone Black2.

I'll go and test it, using BOINC, and let you know what fares better: The Raspberry Pi B+, the Beaglebone Black Rev.C, the Banana Pro or the Raspberry Pi2.

As it turns out the Raspberry Pi2 fares best, followed by the Beaglebone, The Raspberry Pi B+ and lastly the Banana Pro (least stable of the four, needs constant care/reformatting its SD-card).

[Dirk Broer]

By the way, the Beaglebone Black is the total and utter king of Blinkenlights as compared to the other single boards I own.

ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

[Nflight]

Your descriptions are always spot on descriptive. I love the extensive descriptions leaving nothing to hide and explaining everything I would need to know!

[Dirk Broer]

Running straight from the onboard Ångström Linux did not quite work out:

root@beaglebone:/var/lib/boinc-client# boinc
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.0.27 for arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.26.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1e zlib/1.2.7 libidn/1.25 libssh2/1.4.2 librtmp/2.3
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Processor: 1 ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Processor features:
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] OS: Linux: 3.8.13-bone70
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Memory: 496.47 MB physical, 0 bytes virtual
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Disk: 3.44 GB total, 1.43 GB free
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Local time is UTC +0 hours
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] No usable GPUs found
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Config: GUI RPC allowed from:
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [SETI@home] URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 7533940; resource share 10
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] No general preferences found - using defaults
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Reading preferences override file
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Preferences:
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] max memory usage when active: 248.24MB
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] max memory usage when idle: 446.83MB
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] max disk usage: 1.34GB
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] don't use GPU while active
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in the Manager)
dir_open: Could not open directory 'slots'.
31-Mar-2015 21:57:48 [---] Not using a proxy
Initialization completed
31-Mar-2015 21:57:49 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
31-Mar-2015 21:57:49 [---] Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
31-Mar-2015 21:58:20 [---] Benchmark results:
31-Mar-2015 21:58:20 [---] Number of CPUs: 1
31-Mar-2015 21:58:20 [---] 184 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
31-Mar-2015 21:58:20 [---] 2047 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

Note the small value for floating point MIPS, I guess it does not quite make use of the NEON capabilities.
Nothing wrong with the integer value -as compared to the original Raspberries- though!

31-Mar-2015 22:16:57 (low) [SETI@home] update requested by user
31-Mar-2015 22:16:59 (low) [SETI@home] Sending scheduler request: Requested by user.
31-Mar-2015 22:16:59 (low) [SETI@home] Not reporting or requesting tasks
31-Mar-2015 22:17:02 (low) [SETI@home] Scheduler request completed
31-Mar-2015 22:17:02 (user notification) [SETI@home] Message from server: This project doesn't support computers of type arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf

I guess I will have to install Android on the BBB (=Beaglebone Black) in order to get work for the ARM Cortex-A8,
as I do not like the prospect of having to compile client or applications myself each time I need a new one...I've read some pretty positive feedback on NativeBoinc

To be continued!

[Nflight]

By the way, the Beaglebone Black is the total and utter king of Blinkenlights as compared to the other single boards I own.

Thanks for the History lesson on Blinkenlights, I always wanted to know where that descriptive nonsense came from !

[Dirk Broer]

When you want to use the Beaglebone Black for BOINC there are a few things to consider.

• The CPU is a Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x, which is for all practical purposes an ARM Cortex-A8 core.
  
  (x depending on the model/revision. In the case of the Beaglebone Black Rev.C it is a Sitara AM3358BZCZ100).
• Not all OS-es run on an ARM Cortex-A8, and those who do are not are not all supported by BOINC -at least not officially.
  
  You may have to compile the client yourself. Do not forget the set the options specific for an ARM Cortex-A8:
  

  CFLAGS="-march=armv7-a -mtune=cortex-a8" and

  CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=neon -ffast-math -O3"
• Having built a BOINC client yourself on your OS of choice does not guarantee that you can download work from a project -at least not automatically.
  
  You may have to use the anonymous platform option.

The standard OS for the Beaglebone is the very lightweight Ångström Linux and to my astonishment it does not make full use of the NEON floating point capabilities, giving the BBB a very low value for floating point MIPS as obtained through the benchmarks in the BOINC-client (184 Floating Point MIPS, see below).

Let's look at the BOINC projects that offer applications for the ARM Cortex-A8, so you do not have to compile them yourself (If you do, do not forget to compile the applications with the same CFLAGS values as mentioned for the BOINC-client!)

Project	Supported CPU architecture
ABC@Home	Only official support for x86, x86-64 and PPC
Albert@Home	Due to the setup of their new Drupal site it is not feasible to do a lookup which CPU architectures are supported. So much for progress and inventing the wheel again. Native BOINC keeps stats for Albert though, so it runs under Android
AlmereGrid	x86, x86-64 only and such recent builds too...
AlmereGrid TestGrid	x86, x86-64 only too I guess, but they are offline at the moment
Asteroids@Home	Should be possible using Android
Atlas@Home	x86-64 paradise
Bitcoin Utopia	Would need Raspbian and enabled Hardware Floating Point, and that's a tall order for a Beaglebone Black. There is a MineNinja that uses the Beaglebone Black, but I do not know as yet if it would work on BU
BOINC@Fiit	x86, x86-64 only
BURP	You are invited to try for yourself
CAS@Home	x86, x86-64 only
Citizen Science Grid	x86, x86-64 only
Climateprediction.net	x86, x86-64 only
Climate@Home	Offline
Collatz Conjecture	Mini Collatz and Micro Collatz can be run on ARM, using Android
Constellation	Automatically a x86 and x86-64 paradise, manually they extend to SPARC64, Itanium (IA64) and PARISC 2.0
Convector	Offline
Cosmology@Home	x86 and x86-64 paradise
DistributedDataMining Project	x86 and x86-64 paradise
DistributedRainbowTableGenerator (DistrRTgen)	Offline
EDGeS@Home	x86 and x86-64 paradise
Einstein@Home	Mostly a x86 and x86-64 paradise (with some PPC), but the Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Arecibo) application has an ARM version running on Android
Enigma@Home	The most common architecture/OS combinations have almost all an executable here
FightNeglectedDiseases@Home aka FiND@Home (formerly FightMalaria@Home)	Besides the usual support for x86 and x86-64, they have recently added support for Raspberry Pi's No mentioning of more general ARM support though
Gerasim	x86 and x86-64 only, they recently added GPU applications too
GPUGRID.net	There is an Android ARM32 application.
Ibercivis	Yet another x86 and x86-64 paradise
iGEM@Home	Offline
La Red de Atrapa Sismos	Should be possible under Android
La Red de Atrapa Sismos Continuo	Should be possible under Android
The Lattice Project	Yet another x86 and x86-64 paradise
Leiden Classical	x86, x86-64 only
LHC@Home 1.0	SixTrack is x86 and x86-64 only
Malaria Control	All apps are x86 and x86-64 only
MilkyWay@Home	Though not mentioned on the project site, there is a Android application running through Native Boinc
MindModeling@Home (Beta)	So many applications, but yet another x86 and x86-64 whitewash
Moo! Wrapper	One application is for Android running on ARM armeabi-v7a
Najmanovich Research Group (NRG)	All apps are x86 or x86-64 only
NFS@Home	Despite the native FreeBSD support on all apps, they are x86 or x86-64 only
NumberFields@Home	Another x86/x86-64 only project
OProject@Home	Offline, but mentioned in the Native Boinc project statistics
Optima@Home	All apps are x86 or x86-64 only
Pirates@Home	All apps are x86 or Mac OSX (intel or PPC) only
Poem@Home	All apps are x86 or x86-64 only
Primaboinca	Offline
PrimeGrid	Though not mentioned on the project site, there is a Android application running through Native Boinc
QMC@Home	Though having x86 and x86-64 apps available for BOINC, this project does not export stats -despite several requests- and is therefore to be avoided
Quake-Catcher Network Sensor Monitoring	Should be possible using Android, there are also Native Boinc Stats for QCN
Quake-Catcher Network EMSC / CSEM	Should be possible using Android
Quake-Catcher Network (Taiwan)	Should be possible using Android
RALPH@Home	Rosetta Mini for Android runs on Android for ARM
Renderfarm.fi	Offline
Rioja Science	x86 and x86-64 only
RNA World (beta)	Another x86/x86-64 whitewash
Rosetta@Home	Rosetta Mini for Android runs on ARM CPUs
SAT@Home	x86/x86-64 only
Seti@Home	Will run on Android for ARM as there are stats -and downloads- at Native Boinc. This gets supported for SETI@home v7 with 5 application for ARM/Android on the Seti apps page
Seti@Home Beta	Will run on Android for ARM as there are stats at Native Boinc. May need some fiddling though for a Cortex-A8 due to it having Neon, but VFPv3. You might need a ARMv6 client for the Beaglebone Black
theSkyNet POGS	Besides running on the usual x86/x86-64 CPU/OS combinations, fitsedwrapper also runs on Android running on ARM according to the website
SLinCA	x86 heaven, 32 bits even
SRBase	A x86/x86-64 paradise
SZTAKI Desktop Grid	Another x86/x86-64 paradise
TN-Grid	x86/x86-64 only
Universe@Home	x86/x86-64 paradise
Universe@Home Test	x86/x86-64 paradise being tested
Van Der Waerden Numbers	Another x86/x86-64 paradise
Virtual LHC@Home	Yet another x86/x86-64 whitewash
Volpex@Home	Yet another x86/x86-64 paradise
WEP-M+2 (wanless2)	Another x86/x86-64 paradise
World Community Grid	Judged from these stats it should be possible using Android through Native Boinc and it is indeed: I just completed a FAAH WU on my Beaglebone Black.
WUProp@Home	All major architectures can be found here, both Datacollect 4 and 5 run ARM Android, 4 even ARM Linux
Yafu	There is a testbenchmark running for Android running on ARM armeabi-v7a
Yoyo@Home	Cruncher ogr should be possible on an ARM Cortex-A8, both with Linux and Android

[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 -though I am slowly going nuts by the latter's refusal to boot from SD card.

The bone may have been driving me nuts, but I still got me marbles!
I appears that though the SD card is supposed to flash the eMMC, it is still needed at boot, and you need to connect the bone to a power source other than your PC, otherwise you still have the Debian that is on the eMMC (the 4GB internal flash storage of the BBB Rev. C).

First I connected the bone to my USB-powered hub -I also have an unpowered one which I use the expand the meagre one USB2.0 host port of the Bone.
So power comes in through the Micro USB client and leaves via the normal sized USB2.0 host to a 7-port USB2.0 hub. This I connect to a mouse and keyboard.
I have a micro HDMI to HDMI cable that connects with a HDMI Switch, so all my single boards can use the same monitor, that I connect through a HDMI to DVI adapter.

At first, using this setup, I got the full Beagle Debian -better than connecting the Bone to a Windows or Linux box, but still no cigar.
Then I decided to use the SD card that I had used to flash the bone.
Bingo! Android started!
Then I installed Native Boinc, connected to BAM!... and now it's running....


It looks a bit like this, only my taskbar has less items, just the three on the left.

The different OS/Boinc Client combination has its effect: The Floating Point performance goes up to 277 MIPS (from 184, some 50%!), the Integer Performances drops to 1607 MIPS (from 2047, so about 20%). As it is still Boinc 7.0.36 there is no way of seeing the processor features, but nativeboinc supplies it through host info: swp, half, thumb, fastmult, vfp, edsp, thumbee, neon, vfpv3, tls.

[Nflight]

Really Dirk: "The bone may have been driving me nuts, but I still got me marbles! " Are you sure?

[Dirk Broer]

Who says I can't make witty remarks in another language?

[NeoGen]

I just happened to click and search through Native Boinc's page and noticed it has stats, teams, users, projects, etc... are those stats collected for work processed with the native boinc client only, or with any ARM capable boinc client?