Single Board Computer Benchmarks
Shawn Hymel 
Round 1
The Contenders
Raspberry Pi 2 (Model B)
The Raspberry Pi was created as a cheap platform to teach the basics of computer science to students. It is one of the cheapest and most popular SBCs available. We tested a Raspberry Pi 2 - Model B against other SBCs in this round. Running uname -a gives us the version of Linux:
Linux raspberrypi 3.18.11-v7+ #781 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 21 18:07:59 BST 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux
BeagleBone Black - Rev C
The BeagleBone Black was created by Texas Instruments as an open source single board computer for the masses. Revision C increased the onboard storage to 4 GB and comes pre-loaded with a Debian Linux image. The version of Linux used in the tests was:
Linux beaglebone 3.8.13-bone47 #1 SMP Fri Apr 11 01:36:09 UTC 2014 armv7l GNU/Linux
Intel® Edison
The Intel® Edison is a tiny computer module intended for wearable devices. Without a video out port, it may not meet the definition of "single board computer." However, because it is capable of running Linux, we can compare its performance against other SBCs, with the exception of the graphics tests. The version we tested was running:
Linux edison 3.10.17-poky-edison+ #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 29 03:54:01 CEST 2015 i686 GNU/Linux
pcDuino3
The pcDuino is LinkSprite's version of a Raspberry Pi and Arduino mashup. The pcDuino is capable of running Linux and emulating an Arduino at the same time. Note that we ran the OS from a microSD card and not a disk drive connected to the SATA port. We tested version 3, which was running:
Linux ubuntu 3.4.79+ #12 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jul 21 13:05:42 CST 2014 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
Acadia
LinkSprite created the Acadia to bring higher-performing ARM CPUs to the SBC market. The Acadia is built around the powerful Freescale i.MX6 processor. Note that we ran the OS from a microSD card and not a disk drive connected to the SATA port. The Linux version was:
Linux Acadia 3.0.35-2666-gbdde708 #76 SMP PREEMPT Tue Feb 10 23:03:49 PST 2015 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
Specifications
For a quick comparison, we have provided some tables showing the various features of the SBCs under test.
| Device | Processor | Architecture | CPU Speed | Cores | GPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 2 | Broadcom BCM2836 | ARM Cortex-A7 | 900 MHz | 4 | Broadcom |
| BeagleBone Black Rev C | TI Sitara AM335x | ARM Cortex-A8 | 1 GHz | 1 | PowerVR SGX530 |
| Intel Edison | Intel Atom Z34XX | Silvermont x86 | 500 MHz | 2 | None |
| pcDuino3 | Allwinner A20 | ARM Cortex-A7 | 1 GHz | 2 | Mali-400MP2 |
| Acadia | Freescale i.MX6 | ARM Cortex-A9 | 1.2 GHz | 4 | Vivante GC2000 |
| Device | RAM Size | RAM Type | Onboard Storage | Flash Slot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 2 | 1 GB | LPDDR2 | None | microSD |
| BeagleBone Black Rev C | 512 MB | DDR3 | 4 GB | microSD |
| Intel Edison | 1 GB | LPDDR3 | 4 GB | None |
| pcDuino3 | 1 GB | DDR3 | 4 GB | microSD |
| Acadia | 1 GB | DDR3 | None | microSD |
| Device | USB | SATA | Audio Out | HDMI | Ethernet | WiFi | Bluetooth | GPIO | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 17 | $39.95 |
| BeagleBone Black Rev C | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | 66 | $54.95 |
| Intel Edison | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | 40 | $49.95 |
| pcDuino3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 22 | $59.95 |
| Acadia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | 22 | $119.95 |
The Results
And now for the part you have been waiting for: the results! We will present a comparison chart for each test. You will also be able to find a link to the raw test results in each section should you desire more details.
CPU (Single Core)
Times how long it takes to convert a .WAV audio file to a FLAC file. The raw test results can be found here.
CPU (Multi-Core)
Computes floating point operations per second (in MFLOPS) by timing how long it takes to solve a pressure Poisson equation. The raw test results can be found here.
RAM
Tests aggregate RAM read and write speed. The raw test results can be found here.
Flash Memory
Transfers files to and from flash memory to compute the read and write rates. The raw test results can be found here and here.
Note that the BeagleBone Black Rev C test was slightly different, as we had to use a 512 MB test file (instead of the 2 GB file used for the other tests). There was simply not enough space on the BeagleBone Black's onboard eMMC.
Graphics (2D)
Times how long it takes to draw a set number of filled circles (many thousands) in a window. The raw test results can be found here.
Note that we left out the Edison as it does not have a video out port and therefore no default GUI.
Power
Compute average power consumption based on measured current draw (averaged over 10 seconds) and measured DC voltage. The raw test results can be found here.
