EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGY FEATURE POWER VERSUS PERFORMANCE
operating voltage with support for up to 16GB. Three independent graphic outputs provide up to 4K2K display resolution. By means of the processor, the new
architecture supports HD Turbo Boost, Hyper-Threading and hardware support for AES encryption (AES-NI) on all models. Particularly noteworthy are the new high-performance vector processing unit AVX 2.0 (Advanced Vector Extensions, floating point unit for highly
complex calculations) and the Intel AMT 9.5 remote management, as well as the fully integrated low-power chipset (PCH). The champ i7-4650U comes with 4MB L3 cache, while the i5-4300U and the i3- 4010U supply 3MB of L3 cache. The graphics can be configured to work in
Markus Hofmeister, Hardware Developer X86 at Congatec explores the 4th generation of Intel Core-i series processors, previously known as "Haswell" and how feature optimisation and further development of the existing microarchitecture is delivering significant performance capabilities to handle the demands of the power and performance budget
B
alancing power and performance is a challenge that industrial system
designers face as much as any other embedded developer. But what happens when integrated graphics and connectivity demands begin to be placed on industrial platforms? Developers will need a compute option capable of next-generation performance that also provides the flexibility to meet current application needs. Responding to these industry demands, Congatec’s Haswell range has undergone some revisions with some impressive results. The company has made changes to all models of its 4th generation of Intel Core-i series processors, including new microcode and extended registers, an extension of the vector processing unit, larger and much more powerful graphics units and hardware support for AES encryption. Revised power management, expanded
and individually configurable turbo-boost modes, and extensive TDP configuration management to adapt to the respective cooling solution are found exclusively on
the Core i7-4650U and Core i5-4300U. The Processor Controller Hub (PCH) has
been integrated into the Haswell U-series as a multi-die in the same package. So, compared to the predecessors of the 3rd generation Core-i processors, not only 2Watts of TDP, but also approximately 4Watts of the previous discrete PCH solution can be saved. Further savings come from
the new fully integrated voltage regulator units. All together the power savings sum up to about one third of the 3rd generation’s system consumption. To explore the differences
Figure 1:
The COM Express concept with conga-TC87 module
either a very powerful or highly power efficient mode operating at lower clock frequencies. In contrast to the i7 top model, volume models i3-4010U and i5- 4300U are using the new HD 4400 U- series standard graphics based on GT2. Here the number of integrated computing units (Execution Units) has been increased from 16 to 20 compared to the previous model based on HD 4000 graphics, while its base clock frequency has been reduced from 350MHz to 200MHz. The integrated graphics support the latest versions of DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL1.2. Newly added is support of 4K2K native display resolution with up to 3840 by 2160 pixels with DisplayPort and 4096 by 2304 pixels with HDMI. HD 5000 graphics based on GT3 comes
“The new multi-format codec, provides further
between i3, i5 and i7 processors in the U-series let’s look at the commonalities first: All of the Haswell embedded U-series single-chip models currently come with a maximum TDP of 15Watts and support DDR3L memory with a throughput of 1600MT/s and 1.35V
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relief for those applications where continuous top end graphics are not required, thus decreasing overall power consumption frequencies ...”
exclusively with the i7-4650U and features 40 execution units, almost twice the graphics performance of the corresponding GT2 models. As a result, the turbo mode is rarely used, which has a favorable effect on power dissipation and TDP. Good latency performance, high processing power for complex calculations, which can be almost doubled by use of the instruction set extensions AVX 2.0, FMA and TSX, and matching graphics performance make the embedded U-series an ideal solution for scalable industrial applications especially in conjunction with COM Express. The benefits of this solution are particularly evident when passive cooling is a must.
Congatec
www.congatec.com 01424-846915
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