Calxeda ECX-1000 Benchmarks vs. Intel Atom, TI OMAP4

Running Smallpt was another test profile that put the 1.4GHz quad-core Calxeda neck-and-neck with the 1.8GHz Atom D525.

For the LAMMPS molecular dynamics simulator, the 1.1GHz quad-core Calxeda configuration was competitive with the 2010 Atom while the 1.4GHz ARMv7 had a more distant lead.

The 1.4GHz quad-core struck another win with multi-threaded ray-tracing.

Overall, a single 1.1~1.4GHz Calxeda ECX-1000 Cortex-A9 server node proved competitive against an Intel Atom D525, a x86_64 CPU that is clocked at 1.8GHz with two physical cores plus two logical cores via Hyper Threading. While the Calxeda node did nicely against the Atom D525 in a majority of the Ubuntu Linux benchmarks, the real story is the performance-per-Watt, which unfortunately can't be easily compared in this case due to the limitations mentioned in the introduction. If there were the power numbers, the Calxeda ARM Server would likely easily win with the SoC power consumption under load averaging 4 Watts for the 1.1GHz card and just over 6 Watts for the newer 1.4GHz variant. The Atom D525 has a rated TDP by Intel of 13 Watts.

Stay tuned for more Calxeda ARM Linux server benchmark results, but until then make sure you looked at the individual performance-per-Watt numbers in this article along with the original Ubuntu 12.04 vs. Ubuntu 12.10 Calxeda benchmarks.

As aforementioned, if you wish to compare your x86/ARM/SPARC/PowerPC Linux system to these benchmark results in this article, thanks to the automated open-source Phoronix Test Suite software this can be done in a fully automated manner -- from test installation to execution and result analysis -- simply by executing phoronix-test-suite benchmark 1210247-RA-CALXEDAAT08. For more x86 vs. ARM Linux tests that I have carried out on Phoronix.com, see 12-Core ARM Cluster Benchmarked Against Atom, Ivy Bridge, Fusion.