ODROID-MC1 Solo

is one single unit out of ODROID-MC1 : My Cluster One with 32 CPU Cores and 8GB DRAM. The MC1 was originally designed to be 4 stackable units, each with a specially designed Single Board Computer (SBC) based on the Samsung Exynos 5422 Octa-core processor and ready to use as a personal cluster for learning as well as for doing useful work. There were some demands on a single unit, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or n stackable cluster. The MC1 Solo is offering more flexibility on that requirements. The OS image is compatible with the ODROID-XU4.

It can run Docker Swarm, Build Farm and many other parallel computing applications.

Key features

* Samsung Exynos5422 big-LITTLE octa-core CPUS with 2GB RAM

* Gigabit Ethernet port

* USB 2.0 Host

* UHS-1 capable micro-SD card slot for boot media

* Size : 92x42x29mm approx.

* Screws : M3 x 8mm self tapping screw

* Linux OS images based on modern Kernel 4.14 LTS

MC1 Cooling Fan, Acrylic and Screw Package is sold separately.

To set up a cluster, you need the following :

n x MC1 Solo

n x 5V/4A power supply for the MC1 computers

1 x Gigabit switch with n+1 ports

n+1 x Ethernet cables

n x microSD cards (at least 8GB in capacity)

Docker Swarm

The most tedious part in setting up the ODROID-MC1 cluster is to install an OS and software packages needed for running and managing the docker-swarm on each compute node.

To expedite the process, you can download an SD card image with everything almost ready to use at https://oph.mdrjr.net/MrDreamBot/.

There are still a few steps you have to do to make everything work. The SD card has logins ‘root’ and ‘odroid’ already set up.

The password for both logins is “odroid:. The Swarm we are building consists of 1 master and 3 worker nodes.

https://magazine.odroid.com/article/odroid-mc1-docker-swarmgetting-started-guide/https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/application_note/software/creating_build_farm

Build Farm

A compile farm is a server farm, a collection of one or more servers, which has been set up to compile computer programs remotely for various reasons.

Here is an example guide to create your own build farm.

https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/application_note/software/creating_build_farm

JAVA Parallel programming

An environment ready for experimenting with MPJ Express, a reference implementation of the mpiJava 1.2 API.

https://magazine.odroid.com/article/odroid-mc1-parallel-programming-getting-started/

Hadoop and Spark

Installing HADDOP and SPARK onto an ODROID-XU4 or MC1 cluster.

https://magazine.odroid.com/wp-content/uploads/ODROID-Magazine-201609.pdf#page=18

PXE remote booting setup

How to set the PXE environment (server and clients) using ODROID-XU4/HC1/MC1. Although the NFS is used for the root file system of PXE client in this page, the ramdisk is also useful if the image size of the root filesystem is compact.

https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/application_note/software/pxe_boot

Which power adaptor should I use?

We recommend a 5V/4A adaptor. Inner diameter is 2.1mm, outer diameter is 5.5mm. Center is Positiver an Outer is Negative. MC1 Solo consume around 14Watt.

Note:

The supplier of the product has no replacement and/or refund policy as part of their product warranty/guarantee. Furthermore, the repair cost and the cost of shipping to and fro from South Korea has to be borne. As Fab.to.Lab is merely an intermediary we extend the exact same warranty terms to all customers of Harkernel.

Please find more details here: Supplier warranty terms and conditions: https://www.hardkernel.com/agreement/

CPU/RAM PERFORMANCE

We ran several benchmarks to measure the computing power on the MC1/XU4. The same tests were performed on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, ODROID-C1+, ODROID-C2 and ODROID-MC1/XU4.

The values of the test results were scaled uniformly for comparison purposes. The computing power of the MC1/XU4 was measured to be ~7 times faster than the latest Raspberry Pi 3 thanks to the 2Ghz Cortex-A15 cores and much higher 64bit-wide memory bandwidth. Using the MC1/XU4 as a computer provides a “professional server like” experience, unlike the sluggish performance of most single-board computers!

Particularly for developers, compiling code on the MC1/XU4 is super fast. The high-performance 2GB DDR3 RAM is an additional advantage allowing most programs to be compiled directly on the MC/1XU4.

Benchmarks (Index Score)	Raspberry Pi 3	ODROID-C1+	ODROID-C2	ODROID-XU4/MC1
Unixbench: Dhrystone-2	865.4	1571.6	2768.2	5941.4
Unixbench: Double-Precision Whetstone (x3)	1113	1887.3	3076.8	6186.3
Nbench 2.2.3: Integer (x40)	619.92	1173.6	1808.92	2430.52
Nbench 2.2.3: Floating-Point (x100)	781.8	1245.3	2300.3	3787.3
mbw100: Memory Bandwidth (MiB/s)	542.912	616.339	1472.856	2591.461

ETHERNET PERFORMANCE

The MC1/XU4 has an on-board Gigabit Ethernet controller. Our bi-directional streaming speed was measured at ~910 Mbps.

Thanks to the advanced technology of the RTL8153 controller, the MC1’s Ethernet controller easily outperforms the connectivity solutions of prior generations.

Test command

Server mode : iperf -s

Client Mode : iperf -c [ip address] -P 10 -W 32k

Ethernet performance	XU3 On-board 100Mbps	XU3 External 1Gbps	MC1/XU4 On-board 1Gbps
iperf Server on SBC (Mbit/sec)	114	419	915
iperf Client on SBC (Mbit/sec)	114	625	911

SPECIFICATIONS

CPU	Samsung Exynos5422 ARM® Cortex™-A15 Quad 2.0GHz/Cortex™-A7 Quad 1.4GHz
DRAM Memory	2Gbyte LPDDR3 RAM PoP (750Mhz, 12GB/s memory bandwidth, 2x32bit bus)
GPU	Mali™-T628 MP6 OpenGL ES 3.1 / 3.0 / 2.0 / 1.1 and OpenCL 1.2 Full profile
Micro-SD Slot	UHS-1 compatible micro-SD slot upto 128GB/SDXC
USB2.0 Host	HighSpeed USB standard A type connector x 1 port
LEDs	Power, System-status
Gbit Ethernet LAN	10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet with RJ-45 Jack ( Auto-MDIX support)
Power Input	DC Barrel Jack Socket 5.5/21.mm for 4.8V~5.2V input
Size	92 x 42 x 29 mm