3 ms·

RISC architecture has already changed everything. Or did you miss when Apple Silicon basically lapped everybody in performance per watt, while having raw perfor

RISC architecture has already changed everything. Or did you miss when Apple Silicon basically lapped everybody in performance per watt, while having raw performance numbers comparable to, if not exceeding, x86 hardware? Sometimes, it really is the case that a great new technology doesn't exist until Apple invents it.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
It's crazy, in another terminal I have an SSH session open to an RK3588 ARM SoC SBC sitting on the desk behind me. On it I am running benchmarks of my application -- which contains a custom virtual machine for a language interpreter and a custom database engine. On throughput -- compared to my Ryzen 7 Thinkpad, it's getting 1/2 the performance on the DB engine side of things and 1/3rd for the VM. (This is on a single core, I don't have a good bench for multicore performance yet.) The thing is... the laptop cost ~$3000, and is clocked way higher. The SBC cost ~$200. It's warm to the touch, but not hot. The little DC powerbrick it came with is totally fine, and there's no fan, just a heat sync. I could stick a dozen of these in a 19" enclosure, and with the right programming have an absolutely awesome amount of computer for the price and power use. I just wish I could get an ARM workstation-class machine that wasn't a Mac.
- drpixie 3y ago
  > with the right programming :( That's the bit we still don't have right. Apart from a few special cases, we really struggle to use a small number of threads, or a GPU, without enormous amounts of effort - let alone distributed processors. I'm sure part of the problem is we depend on high levels of backwards compatibility with systems assuming mono-processing ... but I'd like to think there is a way. Now if someone came up with a really usable and general model for software across distributed processors...

3 ms·

RISC architecture has already changed everything. Or did you miss when Apple Silicon basically lapped everybody in performance per watt, while having raw perfor

by bitwize 3y ago

cmrdporcupine 3y ago
It's crazy, in another terminal I have an SSH session open to an RK3588 ARM SoC SBC sitting on the desk behind me. On it I am running benchmarks of my application -- which contains a custom virtual machine for a language interpreter and a custom database engine. On throughput -- compared to my Ryzen 7 Thinkpad, it's getting 1/2 the performance on the DB engine side of things and 1/3rd for the VM. (This is on a single core, I don't have a good bench for multicore performance yet.) The thing is... the laptop cost ~$3000, and is clocked way higher. The SBC cost ~$200. It's warm to the touch, but not hot. The little DC powerbrick it came with is totally fine, and there's no fan, just a heat sync. I could stick a dozen of these in a 19" enclosure, and with the right programming have an absolutely awesome amount of computer for the price and power use. I just wish I could get an ARM workstation-class machine that wasn't a Mac.
- drpixie 3y ago
  > with the right programming :( That's the bit we still don't have right. Apart from a few special cases, we really struggle to use a small number of threads, or a GPU, without enormous amounts of effort - let alone distributed processors. I'm sure part of the problem is we depend on high levels of backwards compatibility with systems assuming mono-processing ... but I'd like to think there is a way. Now if someone came up with a really usable and general model for software across distributed processors...