Braswell: Low power, low cost mprime?

Mark Rose · 2015-11-23, 00:42

So the Braswell chips have caught my eye lately. Specifically, the N3150 quad core 6W processors. The base clock is 1.6 GHz and the boost 2.08 GHz. It supports DDR3L-1600, which is enough memory bandwidth to keep the four cores fully fed at those clock speeds.

A complete system with dual channel memory can be built for less than $200 CAN ($150 US), and it will sip power when running.

Has anyone played with these things?

Mark Rose · 2015-11-23, 01:13

Interestingly, it looks like Intel has run Prime95 on them, showing 2.4 watts SoC consumption. As to what their performance is though, no idea.

bgbeuning · 2015-11-23, 03:29

This page gives it a CPU benchmark score of 1300

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?...50+%40+1.60GHz

An i7-4700 gets a score of 7700 on the same page. Close to 6 times faster.
But the i7 probably uses more than 6 times the wattage.

axn · 2015-11-23, 03:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Rose

So the Braswell chips have caught my eye lately. Specifically, the N3150 quad core 6W processors. The base clock is 1.6 GHz and the boost 2.08 GHz. It supports DDR3L-1600, which is enough memory bandwidth to keep the four cores fully fed at those clock speeds.

A complete system with dual channel memory can be built for less than $200 CAN ($150 US), and it will sip power when running.

Has anyone played with these things?

No AVX. Avoid.

Mark Rose · 2015-11-23, 03:48

Thanks for saving me money, guys :)

LaurV · 2015-11-23, 06:03

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
What form factor those SoCs have? (searching for it right now)

edit: We are looking for small SoC which is x86 compatible, but this seems to be a whole mobo, not a SoC.

Mark Rose · 2015-11-23, 06:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaurV

Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
What form factor those SoCs have? (searching for it right now)

edit: We are looking for small SoC which is x86 compatible, but this seems to be a whole mobo, not a SoC.

Of particular interest to me is the ASRock N3150DC-ITX which comes with a power adapter. I was thinking of hanging them vertically to help the CPU heatsink make convection. All I would need to get in addition would be RAM, and network boot. There are also NUCs available, but I imagine they would get warm with the CPU pinned.

LaurV · 2015-11-23, 07:14

We know that, and others, I was posting in my "custom cooling" thread about us using Portwell's mobos, but when one says "SoC", you are thinking more along, for example, these lines. Yet, that is a "module" (SoM) and not a "chip". That is, when you say SoC, you have all the system on a chip, (or at least a very small PCB), which you can add to your own-designed mobo, customized for your needs. Most of our customers want industrial interfaces like CAN bus (times 4!), curent loop, IO-Link, etc., other things suitable for noisy industrial environment, which we need to make by ourselves, one can not buy them (except from other companies which actually... are our competitors

). But you buy the CPU card, or the SoC, and add it to your mobo, and avoid buildin/bringing up your own OS, etc (which is pain in the butt, believe me!). The SoC comes with everything you need to adapt it to your mobo, it has memory, ethernet, all interfaces you connect to your CAN controllers, IO-Link and other things you put on your mobo, but most important, it comes with the OS flashed and licensed, you only scratch your head to write and compile some drivers for the shit you put on your mobo. If you need to add external memory sticks, etc, and it has 2 squared kilometers, than it is not a SoC.

henryzz · 2015-11-24, 13:18

I would love to see a system made of a 6y54 or something like that. I imagine that would be pretty efficient.
At some point atom chips will be obsolete and will be replaced by low power mainstream cpus

VictordeHolland · 2015-11-26, 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by henryzz

I would love to see a system made of a 6y54 or something like that. I imagine that would be pretty efficient.
At some point atom chips will be obsolete and will be replaced by low power mainstream cpus

I had to look up that processor in the Intel Ark M5-6Y54 as I couldn't recall hearing it.
It maybe power efficient, but not cost efficient (TRAY: $281! )
Even an Intel i5 6600k (quadcore @3.9) is cheaper (BOX : $243) and that supports DDR4.

2015-11-23, 00:42	#1
Mark Rose "/X\(‘-‘)/X\" Jan 2013 2·5·293 Posts	Braswell: Low power, low cost mprime? So the Braswell chips have caught my eye lately. Specifically, the N3150 quad core 6W processors. The base clock is 1.6 GHz and the boost 2.08 GHz. It supports DDR3L-1600, which is enough memory bandwidth to keep the four cores fully fed at those clock speeds. A complete system with dual channel memory can be built for less than $200 CAN ($150 US), and it will sip power when running. Has anyone played with these things?

2015-11-23, 06:03	#6
LaurV Romulan Interpreter Jun 2011 Thailand 7²×197 Posts	Interesting! Thanks for sharing. What form factor those SoCs have? (searching for it right now) edit: We are looking for small SoC which is x86 compatible, but this seems to be a whole mobo, not a SoC. Last fiddled with by LaurV on 2015-11-23 at 06:13

2015-11-23, 07:14	#8
LaurV Romulan Interpreter Jun 2011 Thailand 7²×197 Posts	We know that, and others, I was posting in my "custom cooling" thread about us using Portwell's mobos, but when one says "SoC", you are thinking more along, for example, these lines. Yet, that is a "module" (SoM) and not a "chip". That is, when you say SoC, you have all the system on a chip, (or at least a very small PCB), which you can add to your own-designed mobo, customized for your needs. Most of our customers want industrial interfaces like CAN bus (times 4!), curent loop, IO-Link, etc., other things suitable for noisy industrial environment, which we need to make by ourselves, one can not buy them (except from other companies which actually... are our competitors ). But you buy the CPU card, or the SoC, and add it to your mobo, and avoid buildin/bringing up your own OS, etc (which is pain in the butt, believe me!). The SoC comes with everything you need to adapt it to your mobo, it has memory, ethernet, all interfaces you connect to your CAN controllers, IO-Link and other things you put on your mobo, but most important, it comes with the OS flashed and licensed, you only scratch your head to write and compile some drivers for the shit you put on your mobo. If you need to add external memory sticks, etc, and it has 2 squared kilometers, than it is not a SoC. Last fiddled with by LaurV on 2015-11-23 at 07:23

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2015-11-23, 01:13	#2
Mark Rose "/X\(‘-‘)/X\" Jan 2013 2·5·293 Posts	Interestingly, it looks like Intel has run Prime95 on them, showing 2.4 watts SoC consumption. As to what their performance is though, no idea.

2015-11-23, 03:29	#3
bgbeuning Dec 2014 FF₁₆ Posts	This page gives it a CPU benchmark score of 1300 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?...50+%40+1.60GHz An i7-4700 gets a score of 7700 on the same page. Close to 6 times faster. But the i7 probably uses more than 6 times the wattage.

2015-11-23, 03:48	#5
Mark Rose "/X\(‘-‘)/X\" Jan 2013 2·5·293 Posts	Thanks for saving me money, guys :)

2015-11-24, 13:18	#9
henryzz Just call me Henry "David" Sep 2007 Cambridge (GMT/BST) 2×3³×109 Posts	I would love to see a system made of a 6y54 or something like that. I imagine that would be pretty efficient. At some point atom chips will be obsolete and will be replaced by low power mainstream cpus