Chip: Some tests on power consumption
I have used my lab power supply to test CHIP's power needs. This power supply has two main sections, each one has its own amperemeter and voltmeter. I have connected the first section (on the left) to an alpha CHIP, the second section (on the right) to a CHIP v1.
Alpha Chip uses R8m while Chip V1 uses R8.
In the picture on the left, both CHIPs are idle after completing the boot process. On the right, CHIPs' processors are fully loaded as I started:
yes > /dev/null
on both.
As you can see the results are the following:
- CHIP alpha version: idle 170mA, full load 410mA
- CHIP v1: idle 230mA, full load 490mA.
Update: after a poweroff (standby mode) CHIP alpha < 1mA, CHIP v1 ~4.5mA
So, CHIP v1 is not consuming three times more than CHIP alpha, as somebody claimed, but some more (especially when it's idle... and idle power requirements are important for continuous operation devices).
For those who are interested to compare CHIP with Raspberry PI and Intel Galileo, I made a similar test on my posting Why Intel Galileo is not my favourite platform.
- Raspberry PI: idle 360mA, full load 430mA
- Intel Galileo: idle 520mA, full load 540mA
Raspberry PI requires more current when idle, but the consumption is almost the same (a bit less) when the processor is busy.