Parallella, Raspberry Pi, FPGA & All That Stuff

MarkJ
MarkJ
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RE: Just to clarify, you

Quote:

Just to clarify, you guys are crunching on the ARM core, right? There's no app yet to actually use the Parallela co-processor.. or did I miss this completely?

MrS


Yep. Its a dual-core ARM running the Neon optimised version of the app. Unfortunately nothing uses the Epiphany yet.

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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Indeed. I will try to use

Indeed.

I will try to use the GPU on the Raspberry Pi for FFTs in BRP4 "next weekend" (it's been "next weekend" for the past several months so don't hold your breath :-) ) and take this as a benchmark. I'm curious what you can get out of this GPU which already has an open software FFT library. If I can guesstimate that the Parallella can't do any better because of the bandwidth and memory constraints of the Epiphany multicore (I suspect this will be the case), I'll not even try anything in that direction on the Parallella. What's the point if you cannot even beat the Raspi? But we'll see.

HB

Claggy
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RE: Indeed. I will try to

Quote:

Indeed.

I will try to use the GPU on the Raspberry Pi for FFTs in BRP4 "next weekend" (it's been "next weekend" for the past several months so don't hold your breath :-) ) and take this as a benchmark. I'm curious what you can get out of this GPU which already has an open software FFT library.


But, to do that you'll need to update the firmware from the Stock 3.10.25, ie kernel, SDK, etc, while Boinc run fine up until kernel 3.10.37+,
now they're on 3.12.x, Boinc/project apps cause the pi to lockup:

Linux kernel is now 3.12

Raspberry Pi client causing kernel error and freeze

My Pi has two SDCards, one with Raspbian wheezy on it and kernel 3.10.37+ with a self compiled Boinc, the other SDCard has Raspbian Jessie on it, kernel 3.12.19+, and the repository 7.2.42 Boinc,
It normally freezes within a couple of minutes of starting, I generally have enough time to login, and shutdown Boinc, so I can update it, Once Boinc is shutdown it hasn't frozen on me,
I'd make sure you made an image of your SDCard before you try a newer firmware.

Claggy

MarkJ
MarkJ
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RE: But, to do that you'll

Quote:
But, to do that you'll need to update the firmware from the Stock 3.10.25, ie kernel, SDK, etc, while Boinc run fine up until kernel 3.10.37+,
now they're on 3.12.x, Boinc/project apps cause the pi to lockup:


Do the FFT libraries require the newer kernel or can it work with 3.10? I was under the impression they were available before the kernel was updated so presumably it doesn't need the kernel update.

I am running Jessie and the repo BOINC 7.2.42 but still using the 3.10 kernel without any issue. I had issues with the 3.12 kernel locking up, not as frequently as Claggy but still requiring a power-cycle to get going again.

The process I used to update to Jessie was:
1. Edit apt/sources.list and change the word wheezy to Jessie
2. Do a "sudo apt-get update" command
3. Do a "sudo apt-get dist-update" command
4. Do a "sudo apt-get autoremove" command
5. Do a "sudo apt-get autoclean" command

Make a copy of your SD card before starting. Point 3 takes a while.

I also updated the Parallella which took about 4 hours. It installs a lot of things that one doesn't need for crunching like Thunderbird and LibreOffice and a heap of others which can be culled. The BRP4 app seems to take around 20 hours when running a pair of work units at the same time, so a fair bit quicker than the Pi (about 31 hours with medium overclock).

MarkJ
MarkJ
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RE: You'll want the Fake

Quote:

You'll want the Fake Hardware Clock just like on the Pi:

No more back to 1970

Quote:

Bored to back to 1970? :lol:
Install fake-hwclock.

sudo apt-get install fake-hwclock

Claggy


Apparently Ubuntu doesn't install ntp by default but Debian does. They have something called ntpdate which is supposed to run at boot time. So I have also done a "sudo apt-get install ntp"

Claggy
Claggy
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RE: RE: You'll want the

Quote:
Quote:

You'll want the Fake Hardware Clock just like on the Pi:

No more back to 1970

Quote:

Bored to back to 1970? :lol:
Install fake-hwclock.

sudo apt-get install fake-hwclock

Claggy


Apparently Ubuntu doesn't install ntp by default but Debian does. They have something called ntpdate which is supposed to run at boot time. So I have also done a "sudo apt-get install ntp"


Just installed fake-hwclock on mine, not done ntp yet, have looked up in Synaptic Package Manager, saw ntpdate was installed (client for setting system time from ntp servers), haven't bothered with ntp yet.

Claggy

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: Do the FFT libraries

Quote:

Do the FFT libraries require the newer kernel or can it work with 3.10? I was under the impression they were available before the kernel was updated so presumably it doesn't need the kernel update.

The FFT example code seems to work fine for me on a 3.10 kernel.

HB

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: .. it's been "next

Quote:
.. it's been "next weekend" for the past several months so don't hold your breath :-) )...


Yeah, I get that too ! I've had real life annoyingly interrupting my hobbies for most of this year so far. :-)

Quote:
If I can guesstimate that the Parallella can't do any better because of the bandwidth and memory constraints of the Epiphany multicore (I suspect this will be the case) ....


That's my assessment exactly.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
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RE: RE: .. it's been

Quote:
Quote:
.. it's been "next weekend" for the past several months so don't hold your breath :-) )...

Yeah, I get that too ! I've had real life annoyingly interrupting my hobbies for most of this year so far. :-)

Quote:
If I can guesstimate that the Parallella can't do any better because of the bandwidth and memory constraints of the Epiphany multicore (I suspect this will be the case) ....

That's my assessment exactly.

Cheers, Mike.

We'll know with some confidence later this year: I started a challenge/bet in the Parallella forum like "If someone can implement a length 3*2^22 real to complex FFT in single precision on the Parallella faster than I can do it using the Raspi GPU, I'll donate a crate of beer", and Andreas Olofsson himself, founder and CEO of Adapteva, accepted the challenge. Deadline is Sept. 15th 2014.

Cheers
HB

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
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You guy are having fun for

You guy are having fun for sure :D

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

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