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.