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Basic questions: 1. Can I run python on linux on this 2. Would the multiprocessing module work like it does on x86 4 core chips?

WestCoastJustin 13y ago
Looks like you can run Linux Ubuntu on it [1]. [1] http://www.parallella.org/2013/05/11/the-parallella-board-now-runs-ubuntu/ http://www.parallella.org/2013/05/11/the-parallella-board-no...
dragontamer 13y ago
1. It runs Ubuntu 2. No. Its very very different.
astrodust 13y ago
There's a number of Linux distributions for ARM, as the Raspberry Pi project has several. Python, Ruby, Perl, NodeJS and a number of other tools are fully supported. The multi-processing side, though, is probably not a standard CPU meaning you can't just throw Python code at it. You'll have to use CUDA or OpenCL techniques. If you want a small ARM system, the Pi is a good place to start but the Beagle Board (http://beagleboard.org/ http://beagleboard.org/) is a much better deal.
deleted 13y ago
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andrewcooke 13y ago
to correct for my earlier mistake... the board consists of an arm processor (like a phone) and an array of smaller processors. linux and python will run on the arm, but not on the smaller processors. multiprocessing works by running a separate copy of python on each core and then managing data transfer. so it won't help you here, because you would need python to be running on each of the smaller processors in the array. instead you need to target the array processors in a dedicated language. people are mentioning opencl (which is c-like, but has a very strong emphasis on all processors doing the same task); the wikipedia page describes a gcc-based compiler. at a stretch, perhaps you could use the gcc-based c compiler to compile python and get multiprocessing working that way. but i imagine that it would be a lot of work and an inefficient way to use the system (the small cores are not very powerful, so you need to keep overhead down, so python is a bad idea). if someone can get erlang working across the array then that might be your best bet. erlang is a little bit like python and multiprocessing (not terribly similar, but close enough for many things to make sense).
- iandanforth 13y ago
  Thanks, appreciated!

WestCoastJustin 13y ago

Looks like you can run Linux Ubuntu on it [1]. [1] http://www.parallella.org/2013/05/11/the-parallella-board-now-runs-ubuntu/ http://www.parallella.org/2013/05/11/the-parallella-board-no...

dragontamer 13y ago

1. It runs Ubuntu 2. No. Its very very different.

astrodust 13y ago

There's a number of Linux distributions for ARM, as the Raspberry Pi project has several. Python, Ruby, Perl, NodeJS and a number of other tools are fully supported. The multi-processing side, though, is probably not a standard CPU meaning you can't just throw Python code at it. You'll have to use CUDA or OpenCL techniques. If you want a small ARM system, the Pi is a good place to start but the Beagle Board (http://beagleboard.org/ http://beagleboard.org/) is a much better deal.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

andrewcooke 13y ago

to correct for my earlier mistake... the board consists of an arm processor (like a phone) and an array of smaller processors. linux and python will run on the arm, but not on the smaller processors. multiprocessing works by running a separate copy of python on each core and then managing data transfer. so it won't help you here, because you would need python to be running on each of the smaller processors in the array. instead you need to target the array processors in a dedicated language. people are mentioning opencl (which is c-like, but has a very strong emphasis on all processors doing the same task); the wikipedia page describes a gcc-based compiler. at a stretch, perhaps you could use the gcc-based c compiler to compile python and get multiprocessing working that way. but i imagine that it would be a lot of work and an inefficient way to use the system (the small cores are not very powerful, so you need to keep overhead down, so python is a bad idea). if someone can get erlang working across the array then that might be your best bet. erlang is a little bit like python and multiprocessing (not terribly similar, but close enough for many things to make sense).

iandanforth 13y ago
Thanks, appreciated!