Raspberry Pi 2 benchmarking
using sysbench and Java

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is done on three computers using sysbench and Fibonacci sequence program in Java.

  1. Raspberry Pi
    Single core 700MHz, 512MB RAM
  2. Raspberry Pi 2
    Quad core 900MHz, 1GB RAM
  3. Laptop running Ubuntu 14.04
    Quad core 2.50GHz, 16GB RAM

Benchmarking using sysbench

Install sysbench using sudo apt-get install sysbench

Single threaded benchmark

  1. Raspberry Pi

    $ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 run --num-threads=1
    
    sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark
    
    Running the test with following options:
    Number of threads: 1
    
    Doing CPU performance benchmark
    
    Threads started!
    Done.
    
    Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 2000
    
    Test execution summary:
        total time:                          64.2297s
        total number of events:              10000
        total time taken by event execution: 64.1675
        per-request statistics:
             min:                                  5.34ms
             avg:                                  6.42ms
             max:                                 30.93ms
             approx.  95 percentile:              15.46ms
    
    Threads fairness:
        events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
        execution time (avg/stddev):   64.1675/0.00
    
  2. Raspberry Pi 2

    $ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 run --num-threads=1
    
    sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark
    
    Running the test with following options:
    Number of threads: 1
    
    Doing CPU performance benchmark
    
    Threads started!
    Done.
    
    Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 2000
    
    Test execution summary:
        total time:                          31.0586s
        total number of events:              10000
        total time taken by event execution: 31.0443
        per-request statistics:
             min:                                  3.08ms
             avg:                                  3.10ms
             max:                                  4.94ms
             approx.  95 percentile:               3.11ms
    
    Threads fairness:
        events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
        execution time (avg/stddev):   31.0443/0.00
    
  3. Laptop running Ubuntu 14.04

    $ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 run --num-threads=1
    
    sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark
    
    Running the test with following options:
    Number of threads: 1
    
    Doing CPU performance benchmark
    
    Threads started!
    
    Done.
    
    Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 2000
    
    Test execution summary:
        total time:                          1.1415s
        total number of events:              10000
        total time taken by event execution: 1.1407
        per-request statistics:
             min:                                  0.11ms
             avg:                                  0.11ms
             max:                                  0.49ms
             approx.  95 percentile:               0.12ms
    
    Threads fairness:
        events (avg/stddev):           10000.0000/0.00
        execution time (avg/stddev):   1.1407/0.00
    

Multi-threaded benchmark

  1. Raspberry Pi
    Oh No!, it has only one CPU.
    No use in running with more threads.

  2. Raspberry Pi 2

    $ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run --num-threads=4
    
    sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark
    
    Running the test with following options:
    Number of threads: 4
    
    Doing CPU performance benchmark
    
    Threads started!
    Done.
    
    Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000
    
    Test execution summary:
        total time:                          190.8656s
        total number of events:              10000
        total time taken by event execution: 763.3344
        per-request statistics:
             min:                                 75.89ms
             avg:                                 76.33ms
             max:                                 92.81ms
             approx.  95 percentile:              76.91ms
    
    Threads fairness:
        events (avg/stddev):           2500.0000/13.00
        execution time (avg/stddev):   190.8336/0.02
    
  3. Laptop running Ubuntu 14.04

    $ sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run --num-threads=4
    
    sysbench 0.4.12:  multi-threaded system evaluation benchmark
    
    Running the test with following options:
    Number of threads: 4
    
    Doing CPU performance benchmark
    
    Threads started!
    Done.
    
    Maximum prime number checked in CPU test: 20000
    
    Test execution summary:
        total time:                          8.4443s
        total number of events:              10000
        total time taken by event execution: 33.7718
        per-request statistics:
             min:                                  2.90ms
             avg:                                  3.38ms
             max:                                 11.35ms
             approx.  95 percentile:               3.40ms
    
    Threads fairness:
        events (avg/stddev):           2500.0000/13.75
        execution time (avg/stddev):   8.4429/0.00
    

Benchmarking using Java

Note: See Raspberry Pi 2 setup to install Java.
Fibonacci Class shown below is used to benchmark.

public class Fibonacci {
    public static void main(String[] args){
        Fibonacci fib = new Fibonacci();
        Long out = fib.fib(Long.parseLong(args[0]));
        System.out.println(out);
    }

    public long fib(long n){
        if(n==0L){
            return 0L;
        } else if(n==1L){
            return 1L;
        } else {
            return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
        }
    }
}
  1. Raspberry Pi

    $ time java Fibonacci 10
    55
    
    real    0m1.644s
    user    0m1.350s
    sys 0m0.200s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 20
    6765
    
    real    0m2.118s
    user    0m1.460s
    sys 0m0.110s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 30
    832040
    
    real    0m1.945s
    user    0m1.580s
    sys 0m0.120s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 40
    102334155
    
    real    0m20.991s
    user    0m18.160s
    sys 0m0.200s
    
  2. Raspberry Pi 2

    $ time java Fibonacci 10
    55
    
    real    0m0.535s
    user    0m0.560s
    sys 0m0.040s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 20
    6765
    
    real    0m0.529s
    user    0m0.500s
    sys 0m0.100s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 30
    832040
    
    real    0m0.575s
    user    0m0.570s
    sys 0m0.070s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 40
    102334155
    
    real    0m10.035s
    user    0m10.030s
    sys 0m0.070s
    
  3. Laptop running Ubuntu 14.04

    $ time java Fibonacci 10
    55
    
    real    0m0.077s
    user    0m0.074s
    sys 0m0.012s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 20
    6765
    
    real    0m0.123s
    user    0m0.073s
    sys 0m0.025s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 30
    832040
    
    real    0m0.091s
    user    0m0.078s
    sys 0m0.023s
    
    $ time java Fibonacci 40
    102334155
    
    real    0m0.890s
    user    0m0.898s
    sys 0m0.004s
    

Conclusion

In one line, Raspberry Pi 2 is much faster than the Raspberry Pi, still it is many folds slower than the traditional laptop/desktop processors.
I think, If you are looking for 24x7 low cost computer, this is the one.
Beside, you can do lot of experiments with it, that cannot be done with laptop/desktop easily.

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About Author

Sakthi Priyan H
Passionate Programmer

  • I am passionate about building excellent teams, processes and systems.
  • Primarily I use Java, Scala and Python for building various systems and tools.
  • Building API services, Big data processing and Machine Learning systems in Crayon Data.
  • Also, interested in Golang and building web apps using Javascript ecosystem.
  • I wrote my first program in BASIC in 1998, Passionate about computers since then.