intel

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on Rockchip RK6321 Dual Core Cortex A5 SoC Targets Wearables with WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS

Rockchip RK6321 Dual Core Cortex A5 SoC Targets Wearables with WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS

Rockchip and Intel started to work on a platform called XMM6321 last year. It featured a dual Core Cortex A5 processor, 3G connectivity, WiFi, and GPS, which was aimed at entry level 3G smartphones and tablets. Fast forward to 2015, Rockchip showcased their RK6321 processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, with very similar specifications compared to XMM6321, but instead it targets wearables such as smartwatches, or children and elderly tracker. So I’ m not quite sure whether Intel XMM6321 and Rockchip RK6321 are the same processor with a different name, or Rochchip tweaked RK6321 specifically for wearables. Key features of Rockchip RK6321 processor: CPU – Two Cortex A5 cores up to 1GHz with 32KB L1 D-cache, 32KB L1 I-cache, and 512KB L2 cache GPU – Supports OpenGL ES 2.0 Memory and Storage I/F – 16-bit LP-DDR2 SDRAM, 8-bit  eMMC, 16-bit NAND Display I/F – MIPI DSI up to FWVGA […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Acer Unveils “Revo Build” Modular Mini PC with Stackable Blocks

Acer Unveils “Revo Build” Modular Mini PC with Stackable Blocks

Acer Revo Build is a mini PC that looks similar to Intel NUC, and powered by Intel Celeron N3050, Celeron N3150, or Pentium N3700 Braswell processor with 32GB eMMC and 8GB RAM, that looks like that: Nice colors… but at first glance it’s just another mini PC with more a recent recent processor and more RAM than usual, until you notice a connector on the top corner of the device no the picture above. That connector is used to stack other blocks such as: 500GB to 1TB hard drive Graphics Block with AMD processor Audio Block with speakers and microphone Wireless charging block Projector block So eventually, your mini PC could look more like a mini tower… Acer Revo Build (M1-601) will ship with Windows 10, and features three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort video output, a headset jack and an SD card slot. The mini PC itself measures […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on The First Intel Core M Skylake-Y Low Power Processors: Core M3 6Y30, M5 6Y54, M5 6Y57 and M5 6Y75

The First Intel Core M Skylake-Y Low Power Processors: Core M3 6Y30, M5 6Y54, M5 6Y57 and M5 6Y75

Last year, Intel unveiled Core M Broadwell-Y processors with 4.5W TDP aimed at laptops and tablets, and offering a middle ground between the performance achieved by Atom/Celeron/Pentium processor and the more powerful Core i3/i5/i7 processors. CPU World has now released details about the new Skylake-Y Core M processor that still feature 2 cores and 4 threads, as well as a TDP of 4.5W. There are now four models: Model Cores / Threads Frequency / Turbo L3 cache Graphics GPU Frequency TDP Core m3 6Y30 2 / 4 900 MHz / 2.2 GHz 4 MB HD 515 300 / 850 MHz 4.5 Watt Core m5 6Y54 1.1 / 2.7 GHz 300 / 900 MHz Core m5 6Y57 1.1 / 2.8 GHz 300 / 900 MHz Core m5 6Y75 1.2 / 3.1 GHz 300 / 1000 MHz The processors have the same number of cores and thread, the same amount of L3 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on MinnowBoard Turbot SBC Gets an Intel Atom E3826 Dual Core Processor, FCC & CE Certification

MinnowBoard Turbot SBC Gets an Intel Atom E3826 Dual Core Processor, FCC & CE Certification

MinnowBoard MAX launched las year as a low cost board based on Intel Bay Trail-I single or dual core processor, and was mostly targeting developers of embedded systems and hobbyists, but could not be used by OEMs as it lacked FCC & CE certifications. ADI Engineering designed a MinnowBoard compatible board named MinnowBoard Turbot with a faster Intel Atom E3826 dual core processor, FCC & CE certifications, and various other hardware modifications bringing improved HDMI, a better voltage regulator, and populating several connectors. MinnowBoard Turbot specifications: SoC – Intel Atom E3826 dual-core processor @ 1.46 GHz (7W TDP) System Memory – 2GB DDR3L 1333 MT/s (Soldered) – Options: 1GB, or 4GB DDR3L Storage – 1x Micro SD card slot, 1x SATA2 3Gb/sec, 8 MB SPI Flash for firmware (Tianocore UEFI, Coreboot / SeaBIOS) Video & Audio Output – micro HDMI connector Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet RJ-45 connector USB – 1x […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Intel Announces Optane Brand for 3D XPoint SSD and DIMM Modules

Intel Announces Optane Brand for 3D XPoint SSD and DIMM Modules

Last month, Intel and Micron unveiled 3D XPoint technology – pronounced 3D Crosspoint – promising over 1,000 times the performance and durability of NAND flash, and 10 times the density of DRAM for non-volatile memory. Intel has now showcased some of the first products to use that technology with an Optane SSD. At IDF 2015, Intel compared the performance of their high-end P3700 SSD delivering 10,600 IOPS against an early 3D Xpoint “Optane” SSD prototype that could deliver 76,600 IOPS or 7.23 times more I/O per seconds, while according to Anandtech some other tests still ran 5 times faster on 3D Xpoint compared the NAND based SSD. Intel plans to release 3D XPoint SSD in 2016, as well as 3D Xpoint DIMM modules for the datacenters. These are exciting developments, but it will probably take a few more years before it comes affordable for consumer devices, as a 400GB P3700 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Ubuntu 14.04.3 Desktop Image for Intel Atom Z3735F mini PCs and Sticks

Ubuntu 14.04.3 Desktop Image for Intel Atom Z3735F mini PCs and Sticks

If you’ve been trying to run Ubuntu on Intel Atom Z3735F, chances are that you’ve come across Ian Morrison (Linuxium) work, even MeegoPad T02 is using one of its older Ubuntu image (without his direct knowledge / authorization), and the developer has now released an Ubuntu 14.04.3 Desktop image for Intel Atom Z3735F based devices around five days after the official Canonical release. The official Ubuntu 14.04.3 includes the newer 3.19 Linux kernel from Ubuntu 15.04, and a matching X.org stack, and has been upgraded that way for hardware enablement, i.e. to support more hardware platforms. Unfortunately, the image for Z3735F is still using a 3.16 kernel because some dynamic kernel modules only work with 3.16. The image supports 32-bit and a 64-bit bootloaders and includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and Audio support. If you’d like to update Ubuntu on your device, download and flash ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-linuxium.iso to a USB drive with ‘Rufus’ […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Intel Skylake-U Processors Run as Low as 7.5W TDP. A Closer Look at Configurable TDP

Intel Skylake-U Processors Run as Low as 7.5W TDP. A Closer Look at Configurable TDP

I try to mostly cover low power systems on this blog, so when it comes to x86 processors I have a cut off TDP of 10 Watts. The next generation of Intel Skylake processors have a TDP of 15 Watts, but when I read Skylake-U lineup post on FanlessTech, I discovered Intel processors also have a configurable TDP option, and in the case of Skylake-U processor their configurable TDP (cTDP) can be as low as 7.5W or 10W depending on models. U-Processor family has Pentium and Celeron processors, but also Core i3, Core i5 and even Core i7 processors such as i7-6600U and i7-6500U clocked up to 3.4 GHz and all with a 15W TDP, but you’ll also notice a column called “cTDP Down” showing 7.5W and 10W values, which shows the great progress made by Intel with regards to low power design. So I decided to look into configurable […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Intel and Micron Promise 1000x Faster Storage with 3D XPoint Memory

Intel and Micron Promise 1000x Faster Storage with 3D XPoint Memory

Non-volatile memory is usually the bottleneck in electronics systems and computers, as it takes much longer to move data from storage than in RAM or cache, so any improvement may yield great benefits, especially when your application requires lots of I/Os. Micron and Intel claim to have developed a new category of memory, and announced 3D XPoint (Read “3D cross-point”) memory as the first break through since the launch of NAND Flash in 1989. There’s great variability between different NAND flash chips, but the companies announced that 3D XPoint is 1,000 times faster and endurant (write cycles) than NAND flash, and 10 times denser than conventional DRAM. The technology would mainly benefit most applications, but especially more demanding ones such as high resolution gaming (4K/8K), real-time pattern recognition, and genomics. Based on the presentation video below, it even seems 3D XPoint memory can be used to replace RAM and NAND […]