New-Tech Europe Magazine | Q1 2020

Embedded computing with 8th generation Intel Core Mobile processors Benefits beyond improved performance

By Jürgen Jungbauer is SBC Product Line Manager at congatec

The 8th generation of Intel Core Mobile processors offers a mighty 40% increase in performance over that of the predecessor generation. However, there are even more reasons that speak in favor of the new Intel Core Mobile processors, which are a perfect fit for many different embedded industries – including all the various new edge-computing applications requiring virtualization and real- time functionalities not only for local processes but also for virtualized fabrics and tactile Internet appliances. Whopping increase in performance through more cores New processor generations are measured above all by the increase in performance they offer. The 8th Intel Core Mobile generation (code name

“Whiskey Lake”) with its new high- end Intel Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, and Celeron Embedded processors is no different in that aspect. This time, however, it achieves levels that haven’t been seen for a long time. Thanks to an improved microarchitecture and especially thanks to twice as many cores, it offers a performance increase of up to 40% over that of the previous U-series processors (code name “Kaby Lake”). The memory has also been designed to match the performance boost: two DDR4 SODIMM slots provide up to 2400 MT/s with up to 64 GB. New high-speed interfaces Apart from providing improved performance, the new processors also impress with other interesting features never offered before. For the first time ever, an Intel U-series processor offers

native USB 3.1 Gen 2 support. This USB SuperSpeed+ interface can transfer up to 10 Gbps or 1.25 GB/s so that even uncompressed UHD video can be transferred from an industrial camera. For this, the high-performance Intel UHD Graphics 620 is integrated into the processor to provide for brilliant high- performance graphics on up to three 60-Hz UHD displays with a resolution of up to 4096 x 2304 pixels. Thanks to the faster memory connection of the 8th generation, it performs much better in high-end graphics applications than the graphics of the predecessor model did. Through further functions such as the optional Intel Optane Memory 2 support, everyday tasks such as database requests for MQTT stacks and telemetry can also be completed faster. Beyond that, the processor cores enable efficient task scheduling for additionally

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