2x Cpu Benchmarks

[skeezix]

Whats with the anti-PSP stuff? (And, do you know, the PSP is also dual core? Silliness )

It takes a lot of work to convert most emus to use multi-cpu shaved-action, though for multi-cpu systems it coudl work out nicely ("natural partitioning")..

/me goes to look at laptops

jeff

 

[digitaltopia]

Another place to see a quick hardware comparison of the gp2x and psp is:

http://www.gp2x.us

But, as AMD has taught us, clock speed isn't everything. There are other factors to consider, such as, how much of the gp2x's cpu is taken up by the os, and how much of the psp's cpu is taken up by its os. And the fact that some processors at lower clock speeds are faster than other processors at higher clock speeds, as AMD as shown us. I don't know enough about the intricate workings of this hardware to be able to answer these questions, but it's just something to keep in mind.

 

[DijiTao]

All this just gets back to why I want to see the same program run on the PSP. Then once there's a program to test memmory bandwidth it would be intresting to know how it ran on both systems.

 

[skeezix]

Nah, that site is biased subconsiously. Hes a great fella, but bending Actually, he's cleaned it up a bit, so its not as biased as it was.

How is the chargable battery worse? It is different. Further, you can buy multiples, so PSP should be equal to 2x on that.. this is the bias showing. Myself, I'd take charable over cells anytime.. I have no interest in buying a dozen AA's a week, and alkaline rechargables last an hour or two in a 2x. PSP clear wins there IMHO, but one must be fair and so .. should be even.

Video formats.. divx, etc. Eventually it should be good at those things, but right now.. gp2x is shite for video; course, PSP is shite too due to Sony trying to limit things. (Thats the biggest PSP flaw.. Sony. Sony sucks.) 2x will be better for formats, likely. Right now, PSP has more formats due to movie player ports, but longterm 2x wins since the PSP homebrew will get locked out

TV-Out.. 2x will need an extra cable; PSP needs an extra gadget (will cost more.) Certainly it doesn't require hacking the device, and there are software drivers that need only a cable, but so far are unreliable in that regard. gp2x should win on that one, but hes being biased again.

Audio.. wma on 2x? Likely cruddy, as wma is cruddy on desktop linux (often depends on win32 drivers, which 2x couldn't use.) Certainly, PSP does streaming audio across 802.11. I'd say PSP wins for audio.

PSP cpus are not limited to 222 as he suggests; thats totally wrong, but he noted PSP is winner there anyway.

He also forgot to mention GPU's and such, where PSP wins.

PSP emulation is quite good where he has 'none'; long term its a problem with Sony lockout, but so far its king for emulation -- quite a wide variety and pretty good (not as wide or as refined as gp32, but many run better than gp32 due to higher specs of PSP.) No hackin the firmware is needed.. you can boot homebrew on all PSPs with FW 2.0 or lower; the big one is the lockout.. if you want games from 2006, you'll get locked out until the exploits are found. Sothe gp2x is a winner in the 'long term', but the PSP is not limited right now. That sort of thing needs more explanation to be fair.. just saying 'NONE' is a bias.

Devkit.. PSP is free; the open source dev kit is amazing. Same stuff as gp2x will have. Bias.

Image playback.. a win for gp2x, just because it can show PCX? Even really, since no one cares about PCX. Bias.

Region coding? I don't think the PSP is region coded.

So while overall a decent guide, its still showing too much fan-bias.

Any attempt at review should always attempt to be fair, to be credible, so he hurts his credibilty there.

(Note that I'm a fan of all or none.. I use a dozen platforms at once and always strive to be a good fair reviewer.)

(My bias? Well, I've developed on everything. I did some PSP homebrew for a monrh or two and stopped.. haven;t touched it in a couple months while waiting for my 2x and being busy with the other 6 platforms I dev for every day

jeff

 

[skeezix]

How did this get hijacked?

I like Squidges original thread.. the dual core performance.

How'd you divide up the CPU work? Perhaps it could be more efficient with more work? Or is it optimal, where each CPU reports to the other only at the end?

Still very efficient overall.. nice.

You've done some killer stuff lately

jeff

 

[Series-8]

This test was very trivial.

Memory bandwidth is going to be the performance killer.

Because it always is.

Finnaly someone has both CPUs doing something.

 

[codeninja]

Emulator writers can start from using the second CPU for sound processing, which is pretty much independent to the main thread. Even that will help a lot (just look at those emulators with sound on/off). Later, they can configure it like the main CPU building the displaylist and the second CPU processing the list like GPUs do.

 

[torpor]

hey .. i bet i could use that second ARM core to do some synthesis .. and a usb-gadget driver to do Audio/MIDI to a totally integrated VST plugin ..

 

[no_skill]

Awesome news! But can we make the performance improvements available to lazy developers?

ie: writing an sdl lib that does blitting / rotating / etc via the second core
or a linux kernel that automatically splits programs to run on both cores.

 

[sand_man]

hey .. i bet i could use that second ARM core to do some synthesis .. and a usb-gadget driver to do Audio/MIDI to a totally integrated VST plugin ..

​

What's the point of that?

 

[Mr Doctor]

PSP stuff

​

Thing about the PSP is that the controls are AWFUL! A D-pad with no diagonals is no d-pad at all Add to that the fact that the screen blurs with any slightly speedy movement really makes the PSP pretty damn shit as a games machine. I was so chuffed with it at first, but if sony just spend some more time and money on the hardware and less on making it look nice for posers it could have been awsome! Good for video, crap for MP3s (incredibly quiet vs an MP3 player).
Its still a good device, but in terms of games its a mile behind the DS. If it wasnt for homebrew Id have ditched my PSP ages ago.... actually, the PDA reader was the main thing that made me keep it, but caSTaway is a work of brilliance too, and as long as Sony dosnt sucseed in its forcing everyone to update, its something to look forward too.... but it will be killed off eventually imo.

PSP = jack of all trades, master of none.
DS = No frills dedicated games machine, which it does brilliantly
GP2X = wayyyy to early to come to any conclutions at all, but I really see it as the home for the homebrew thats going to be kicked off the PSP. In a year it will rock.

 

[BBTroll]

(Thats the biggest PSP flaw.. Sony. Sony sucks.)

​

Best quote ever.

You also forgot the fact that homebrews on the 2.0 firmware are very limited. Due to limitations in the current implementation, homebrews can't access the kernel functions. And you can't press home to look at the batter and time, or quit the app. Standby is also missing. Sony's "system restart" function doesn't work right, so when you quit the 2.0 loader and try to return, sometimes it doesn't work.

Stupid GTA:LCS forcing me to stay in 2.0.

All goes back to Sony sucking.

 

[torpor]

hey .. i bet i could use that second ARM core to do some synthesis .. and a usb-gadget driver to do Audio/MIDI to a totally integrated VST plugin ..

​

What's the point of that?

​

indeed ... what would be the point of that?

 

[noname]

I think this proves that the second processor is all but useless

​

Would it be possible to get an ordinary SMP-kernel working on the gp2x? It'd be great to be able to use normal libraries like pthreads to thread up applications and get better performance.

Does the SMP support in linux perhaps require two identical cores?

 

[andrew_j_w]

Would it be possible to get an ordinary SMP-kernel working on the gp2x? It'd be great to be able to use normal libraries like pthreads to thread up applications and get better performance.

Does the SMP support in linux perhaps require two identical cores?

​

No, the second processor does not have an MMU meaning it's impossible for it to be used by Linux*

Andrew

* unless you replaced the linux used with ucLinux, but that'd be a major task and most people wouldn't want to do it.

 

[dreamwarbird]

hey .. i bet i could use that second ARM core to do some synthesis .. and a usb-gadget driver to do Audio/MIDI to a totally integrated VST plugin ..

​

damn right. Gp2x and VST's. B) B) B)

Match made in heaven.

 

[noname]

Would it be possible to get an ordinary SMP-kernel working on the gp2x? It'd be great to be able to use normal libraries like pthreads to thread up applications and get better performance.

Does the SMP support in linux perhaps require two identical cores?

​

No, the second processor does not have an MMU meaning it's impossible for it to be used by Linux*

Andrew

* unless you replaced the linux used with ucLinux, but that'd be a major task and most people wouldn't want to do it.

​

That's a shame. Well, if someone was up to the task, http://opensrc.sec.samsung.com/ looks like a good place to start.

 

[Talyz]

I thought it was quite obvious that the second CPU wasn't useless in the aspect of providing greater performance :blink: . Thing is, it will be quite hard for programmers to port working emulators to the GP2X making use of its full potential without rewriting the core from scratch . Hopefully it will be easy to make use of the GP2X's power when writing homebrew games

 

[aapje89]

Awesome news! But can we make the performance improvements available to lazy developers?
...
or a linux kernel that automatically splits programs to run on both cores.

​

that would be very cool B)
but will that ever be possible?

 

[pip]

Region coding? I don't think the PSP is region coded.

You are the one who is obviously biased The PSP is region coded when it comes to movies and music but not when it comes to games.