Intel has launched Atom processors with up to 16 low-power x86 cores:
Intel this week formally launched its Atom C3000-series processors (formerly codenamed Denverton). The new chips are designed for inexpensive storage servers, NAS applications, as well as autonomous vehicles. The C3000 series features up to 16 low power x86 cores, integrated 10 GbE, rather rich I/O capabilities, as well as Intel's Quick Assist technology.
Intel's Atom C3000 processors are based on Intel's current-generation Goldmont Atom microarchitecture, with SKUs offering between 2 and 16 cores and clockspeeds up to 2.2 GHz. Being designed for primarily for NAS and servers, the Atom C3000 SoCs fully support Intel's VT-d hardware virtualization, Quick Assist compression/encryption technology (up to 20 Gbps throughput) as well as up to 64 GB of single-channel DDR4-1866 or DDR3L-1600 ECC memory. When it comes to I/O, the Atom C3000 features a PCIe 3.0 x16 controller (with x2, x4 and x8 bifurcation), 16 SATA 3.0 ports, four 10 GbE controllers, and four USB 3.0 ports.
Due to its rich I/O capabilities, the Atom C3000 is aimed at a wide range of devices, including servers/NAS (which they were originally designed for) as well as emerging applications like IoT and autonomous vehicles. For example, PCIe 3.0 bus may be used to connect various controllers, sensors and co-processors (e.g., a GPU) to the SoC. Last year we examined one of the server-oriented C3000-based designs that is going to be one of the many devices featuring the new chips.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @06:22PM
CVE-2016-3287 and SmmRuntime... With such interesting times for Chipzilla I'm sure you'll excuse while I'm skipping on that Intel Inside® label at least 'till 2018/Q1.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday February 25 2017, @06:40PM
I might as well submit something positive about Intel now to balance the shellacking they are going to get in about 5 days. Ryzen preorders seem to be going fast [tomshardware.com], although maybe they didn't prepare enough inventory.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday February 25 2017, @07:59PM
I like my Raspberry Pi and Odroid, but I would like an x86 single board computer. They exist currently, however they are either expensive or out of date. Unfortunately, I doubt the C3000 will make Intel relevant in that space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @08:03PM
holy crap! how much WATT?
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday February 25 2017, @08:49PM
"[T]he Atom C3338 [...] has 9 W TDP," says the story. TDP is short for "total dissipated power."
(Score: 5, Informative) by fnj on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:04PM
Nope. TDP stands for Thermal Design Power. [wikipedia.org]. It is most emphatically NOT the max total power dissipation. It is simply a figure which, if you allow it to be exceeded by the CPU working hard, results in either throttling or premature failure.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:12PM
The C3338 is also only a lowly dual core with no hyperthreading capability. Its ethernets are only 1 or 2.5 Gb (admittedly this still ain't bad).
As always, Intel's stuff is very much a game of "up to".