Intel abandoning the Atom market - impact on future NAS products?

[RMerlin]

Like many, I was taken by surprise when Intel announced they were scrapping plans for the currently scheduled Atom products for 2016, and they are pretty much abandoning that market segment.

What do you guys it will mean for NAS models that were filling that market segment? I've never been a big fan of ARM for a NAS, as the rest of the IO system seemed to be pretty shaky, compared to Intel's rock-solid SATA/USB support. I have a feeling that it means that this segment might disappear, customers being redirected to lower-end ARM or higher-end Celerons. Unless Intel starts pushing out Celerons at the same price level as Atom SKUs, which would probably make the most sense, tho thermal/power usage isn't where the Atom used to be... yet.

 

[sfx2000]

Not a big deal - they're backing away from what is essentially SmartPhone/Tablet app processors... SoFIA and Broxton... small market for them in any event...

Not so worried...

This was a market that was ARM stew of mega-evolution in China - hyrdra-headed/cousin brother of ARMv7 based processors, ok.. Atom Z3735G was 16 bucks, Allwinner H3 Cortex-A7 Quad was 6 bucks... losing battle for Intel there...

Reviewing comments, and knowing the Intel roadmaps - NAS, small desktops, even tablets, they're likely ok - and Intel seems to be very focused on LTE design wins...

 

[stevech]

Like many, I was taken by surprise when Intel announced they were scrapping plans for the currently scheduled Atom products for 2016, and they are pretty much abandoning that market segment.

What do you guys it will mean for NAS models that were filling that market segment? I've never been a big fan of ARM for a NAS, as the rest of the IO system seemed to be pretty shaky, compared to Intel's rock-solid SATA/USB support. I have a feeling that it means that this segment might disappear, customers being redirected to lower-end ARM or higher-end Celerons. Unless Intel starts pushing out Celerons at the same price level as Atom SKUs, which would probably make the most sense, tho thermal/power usage isn't where the Atom used to be... yet.

Linux class ARM processors would be good for mid-range NASes, I think. With well done DMA based drivers and if Linux could ever get USB3 drivers that work correctly for USB/SATA bridge chips where you attach a USB3 backup device with RAID0, RAID1 or JBOD. I pine for eSATA to connect to external backup. USB3 is a mess. In my NAS, my 2 drive RAID0 backup box works in USB2 but same NAS, USB3 port does not recognize the device.

Intel Atom up against ARMs, not going well. But I recall years back that Intel firmly said they are exiting the WiFi business. Did they?


(I sold all my INTC stock last year; nice dividend but I have to protect the principal.)

 

[System Error Message]

non native usb3 chips (unlike the intel/amd chipset usb3) can be weird or be connected by 1 PCIe lane not giving the full bandwidth. And while SoCs do make good compact computing units. Intel has good chipsets compared with what the ARM manufacturers offer so their extra cost is usually worth it assuming its a small difference but intel is still much cheaper than nvidia's ARM offering while having intel HD, some of the SoCs even have openCL compatible graphics.

As far as performance vs architecture if you have a good compiler it doesnt matter if you use ARM or x86 as long as you use their strengths.

 

[RMerlin]

Personally, I think the chipset was Intel's big advantage versus ARM in this market segment. USB controllers from other manufacturers are frequently problematic, and not as well tested/validated with USB devices. I remember all the bad experiences with Via and nvidia back when both were in the PC motherboard market. And the PCI-E USB 3.0 controller I have here in my work PC stops working every couple of days, after trying 3 or 4 different drivers, so I've given up on it (I think it's a Via chipset).

On the SATA side, we can see the performance impact Marvell's scontrollers have on PC motherboards when you compare them with the Intel controller.

I guess that anyone paying for a low-to-mid range NAS won't care as much about the decreased performance, but it's still a step backward for customers.

Hopefully Intel will fill up the Atom segment with Celeron.

 

[RMerlin]

There might still be some short-term life left for Atom, as Apollo Lake is apparently still on schedule. However, they haven't announced anything beyond that core so far.

The news site claiming that all Atom projected products had been cancelled were inaccurate. As usual, Anandtech has an excellent article on the subject:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10288/intel-broxton-sofia-smartphone-socs-cancelled

 

[sfx2000]

The pruning seems to be focused on specific sectors - the SoFIA line, as an example, was a partnership with Rockchip and Spreadtrum - both of which were on 28nm TSMC linear geometry, not 14nm FinFET, so integration probably turned into a deeper challenge than initially estimated... and down at the sub-20nm level, the time and costs (manhours primarily) are a logarithmic jump...

I'm not seeing where they're cutting the entire Silvermont/Airmont/Goldmont lines, just very specific sectors...

 

[LoneWolf]

Sfx2000, that's what I see from what I read too. Good, as I'm waiting for Apollo Lake for the HTPC and micro-PC/NUC market, due to it supposedly having full 10-bit HEVC/H.265 decode.

It has been mentioned that the higher-wattage CPUs that make light desktop replacements will likely remain. I'm using a quad-core Braswell N3700 on an mITX board for the HTPC I built, and it does very well running Windows 8.1 and Kodi, enough to replace a low-voltage Core i5-4590S, and consumes far less energy.

 

[sfx2000]

I'm using a quad-core Braswell N3700 on an mITX board for the HTPC I built, and it does very well running Windows 8.1 and Kodi, enough to replace a low-voltage Core i5-4590S, and consumes far less energy.

I've got a Braswell NUC (N3700) - runs very nice as a Windows machine - there's some unresolved issues in Linux with freezes post 3.18 kernel versions... not sure if that has been resolved yet...

 

[sfx2000]

But I do think perhaps that platforms like the followup to Baytrail-T (tablets/handhelds) is likely toast...

This was the sub-2w category - e.g. Z3537G on the very low end - intel was subsidizing these pretty hard for Tablets and Set Top boxes running either Win8Bing/Win10Home, or Android - and MSFT was putting out 32-bit licenses on these pretty cheap - lot of money on the hood - my HPStream7 tablet was less than 80 bucks...

I can see why Intel walked away from that market...

 

[sfx2000]

tray cost on the Z3537G was like 16-18 USD....

Compared to the N's and J's - laptop/desktop, along with the C models - all were much more in line - 70-120 range...

Die size was all pretty much same across the silvermonts - just different IO and package sizes - but die size is the key cost...

 

[LoneWolf]

I've got a Braswell NUC (N3700) - runs very nice as a Windows machine - there's some unresolved issues in Linux with freezes post 3.18 kernel versions... not sure if that has been resolved yet...

I've got an Asrock ITX-N3700 board. My pet peeves are that Intel isn't releasing their own SATA AHCI drivers (so you get to use the generic MS) and that they're badly neglecting the graphics driver development compared to other processors; considering it uses graphics from the Broadwell platform (which should make this easy) that's highly disappointing, and is a cause for concern, something I hope doesn't happen with Apollo Lake.

I thought of going with an Intel NUC in the Braswell family, but Intel's didn't support dual-channel RAM, and the Asrock board (unlike many) will do a full 8GB using SO-DIMMs. Dual-channel makes a big deal in graphics performance. I don't think Intel went higher than N3150, so I'm assuming your NUC is Asrock, or Gigabyte, etc.

 

[sfx2000]

NUC5PPYH - still single channel - they put an eMMC (32GB) onboard for Win10 - but since it's a "taller" form factor, it's got space/connectivity for a 2.5" SATA disk....

Interesting little box - also bundled is a 3165 AC wifi card - and it's got VGA out, along with full-size HDMI - unfortunately it's HDMI 1.2, so 4K output is a problem...

AES-NI and QuickSync Video is a plus

 

[LoneWolf]

NUC5PPYH - still single channel - they put an eMMC (32GB) onboard for Win10 - but since it's a "taller" form factor, it's got space/connectivity for a 2.5" SATA disk....

Interesting little box - also bundled is a 3165 AC wifi card - and it's got VGA out, along with full-size HDMI - unfortunately it's HDMI 1.2, so 4K output is a problem...

AES-NI and QuickSync Video is a plus

Mine will do a Wifi card too, but all of my TV equipment is wired into my Netgear GS110TP switch, so I didn't go that route. I would have liked an Intel wired NIC though instead of Realtek.

 

[sfx2000]

The realtek NIC is stable under Windows - along with the graphics drivers for GEN8-LP - not as current as BDW GEN, but good enough...

FWIW - the Silvermont/Airmonts are not limited to Realtek - my home Router is based on Silvermont C2358 (Rangley) has Intel NIC's as part of the SoC package... and it performs quite well...

Just for whatever reason - Intel has done the reference design for many of the Baytrail-N/J and Braswell's on the Realtek NIC (it's about half the cost, which might explain why...)

 

[Nullity]

Surely though, there are many aspects of Atom-related technologies that will continue to influence Intel.

 

[LoneWolf]

I can live with it - the NIC works fine for what I need, I'm just picky. The system plays the "Tears Of Steel" H.265 4k .mkv demo fairly well, which is a pretty hefty load. Not quite flawless, but then again, I don't have a 4k television, so that's fine with me. Coupled with a 128GB SSD and a BD-ROM on the off chance I need to play a disc, Kodi 16.1 "Jarvis" runs nicely.

This is what I'd really like to see from Intel. For that box, I don't need massive CPU horsepower; I do need good hardware-accelerated video decode. But it looks like Asrock may have a solution.

http://liliputing.com/2016/04/asrock-deskmini-is-a-tiny-desktop-with-an-upgradeable-cpu.html

An i3-6100 would do the trick just fine.

 

[stevech]

I have a DIY, AMD E350 based ITX small form factor PC. Win 7. Has been running 24/7 for a year or so. No reboots needed. A few power failures.
Its HDMI goes to TV set in same furniture. Software on PC receives IR key presses from cable box remote.
Switch TV to HDMI w/PC. Push up/down, enter and other buttons on the remote to surf the web using an on-screen menu I devised in Javascript for the browser. Menu choices are home webcams, webcams at favorite places like National Parks, in the US and other countries, weather sites in cities, local freeway traffic maps, and so on. Good WAF.

This PC replaced a tower PC using XP that ran the same kind of displays for 5 years or more. And it ran my Sage TV server, and a RAID. That XP box ran well but had to be rebooted once every 60 days or so due to memory leaks.

Both PCs also run the HomeSeer software for my meager home automation (some lights, attic fans, etc.).

Oh, and a caller ID box feeds into these PCs and we get an on screen CID history.

 

[sfx2000]

Interesting opinion piece on the situation...

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/227720-how-intel-lost-10-billion-and-the-mobile-market

 

[Shabbir Rao]

Like many, I was taken by surprise when Intel announced they were scrapping plans for the currently scheduled Atom products for 2016, and they are pretty much abandoning that market segment.

What do you guys it will mean for NAS models that were filling that market segment? I've never been a big fan of ARM for a NAS, as the rest of the IO system seemed to be pretty shaky, compared to Intel's rock-solid SATA/USB support. I have a feeling that it means that this segment might disappear, customers being redirected to lower-end ARM or higher-end Celerons. Unless Intel starts pushing out Celerons at the same price level as Atom SKUs, which would probably make the most sense, tho thermal/power usage isn't where the Atom used to be... yet.

I really do not think that it will effect the NAS. And as for INTEL they are of course doing everything new every time.