Compact computing techniques have gained important market share during the last decade. Enhancements within the efficiency per watt metric of processors have enabled the substitute of cumbersome desktop PCs by ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) machines with a 4 in. x 4 in. footprint. Motivated by IoT purposes on the edge, some corporations resembling Shuttle began creating x86 techniques in sub-4×4 form-factors utilizing Intel’s Apollo Lake processors. ECS was one of many first mainstream distributors to concentrate to this section with their LIVA Q Sequence utilizing Intel’s Atom collection and AMD’s first-generation Ryzen Embedded SoCs. With the introduction of extra power-efficient platforms, Asian producers resembling ACEMAGIC, GMKtec, and MinisForum have additionally entered this micro-PC market with a wider vary of processor decisions.
Because the introduction of Silverthorne Atom processors in 2008, Intel has been sustaining separate microarchitectures in numerous product households to span a wider efficiency / energy effectivity vary. Because of this, customers may both go for a low-power low-cost platform sacrificing on efficiency with Atom-class CPUs or go for a extra performant Core-class CPU, albeit at a better value with some sacrifice on the facility effectivity entrance. From 2008 to 2020, these remained distinct product households. Nevertheless, the introduction of hybrid CPUs (beginning with the short-lived Lakefield) noticed cores primarily based on each microarchitectures to be positioned on the identical die. The Tremont microarchitecture (developed as a part of the Atom-family) made its debut in Lakefield earlier than gaining wider market presence by means of Jasper Lake, Elkhart Lake, and different product households. Its successor (Gracemont) is adopting the same trajectory. After its introduction in Alder Lake, it underwent additional refinement in Raptor Lake.
Intel launched the Alder Lake-N (ADL-N) product household to take over Jasper Lake’s position within the cost-conscious low-power PC market. It’s primarily an Alder Lake processor with all of the efficiency cores eliminated, and a pared-down built-in GPU. As ADL-N ramps up and Jasper Lake winds down, we’re seeing merchandise primarily based on each households being actively bought available in the market. We took benefit of this chance to supply two micro-PCs – the ECS LIVA Q3D, and the ACEMAGIC T8 Plus – and put them by means of our analysis routine to review the advantages of ADL-N’s Gracemont microarchitecture over Jasper Lake’s Tremont. This evaluate presents an in depth evaluation of the outcomes together with a dialogue of the tradeoffs concerned in pursuing a smaller-than-UCFF footprint.
Introduction and Product Impressions
Developments in processor energy effectivity and efficiency have resulted in sub-15W TDP SoCs changing into highly effective sufficient to interchange cumbersome desktops for a lot of use-cases. Intel’s NUC lineup kickstarted this pattern within the early 2010s, with the 4 in. x 4 in. ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) changing into the de-facto commonplace for such techniques. This dimension was arrived at holding the I/O necessities, disk drive sizes, and ease of board design / meeting in thoughts. Since that point, each storage and reminiscence applied sciences have developed considerably. Most techniques use M.2 SSDs these days, a marked shift from the two.5″ drives widespread in these days. Whereas SODIMMs proceed to be the selection for techniques providing reminiscence improve capabilities, fashionable processors have began to combine LPDDR4 / LPDDR5 help. This has resulted in quite a few techniques with soldered reminiscence on board. These components have contributed to some distributors making an attempt to experiment with micro-PCs – techniques having a sub-4×4 footprint.
ECS LIVA Q3D
ECS has remained commited to micro-PCs for the reason that introduction of the Apollo Lake-based LIVA Q1L. The corporate has adopted it up with the LIVA Q2 primarily based on the Gemini Lake refresh SoCs, the Q3 Plus primarily based on the first-generation Ryzen Embedded SoCs, and most not too long ago, the Jasper Lake-based LIVA Q3D. In comparison with a standard UCFF system, the LIVA Q3D collection makes a few tradeoffs. As a substitute of SODIMMs, the system makes use of soldered LPDDR4X RAM. A M.2 SSD slot is prevented by integrating an eMMC boot drive on the board. That is complemented by a built-in microSDXC card reader. These permit the LIVA Q3D to be very compact. The 74mm x 74mm x 34.6mm (a quantity of simply 0.19L) system weighs simply 174g.
Along with the primary unit, the LIVA Q3D package deal comes with a VESA mount and corresponding screws, and a 36W (12V @ 3A) wall wart. The facility adapter has a replaceable plug, and ECS gives US, UK, and EU adapters. The gallery beneath gives a complete take a look at the chassis design and I/O ports placement. The teardown footage gives insights into the internals of the unit.
The teardown footage within the above gallery present that ECS has adopted a dual-board technique for the system. Whereas the primary board has the SoC package deal, RAM, and eMMC, together with the audio jack, the daughterboard has all the different I/Os together with the USB and LAN ports.
A strong warmth sink is mounted with screws on prime of the Jasper Lake package deal, and complemented by a 40mm Cooler Grasp blower fan to take out the warmth in typical pocket book fashion. The CMOS battery is sandwiched between the 2 boards and a steel protect ensures electrical interference mitigation between the elements on the 2 boards.
ACEMAGIC T8 Plus
The T8 Plus is ACEMAGIC’s first try at making a micro-PC. Just like the ECS LIVA Q3D, the T8 Plus additionally makes use of soldered RAM. Nevertheless, because of the newer reminiscence help in ADL-N, the board adopts LPDDR5 RAM. A semblance of upgradability is maintained, because of the usage of a M.2 2242 SATA SSD as a boot drive. The 89.4mm x 89.4mm x 43.4mm (0.35L) system weighs 205g.
Along with the primary unit, the T8 Plus package deal comes with a HDMI cable, wall mount with related screws, an person handbook, and a 30W (12V @ 2.5A) geo-specific wall wart. The gallery beneath gives a take a look at the chassis design and I/O ports placement. Teardown footage offering insights into the internals are additionally included.
The photographs present the presence of a raised section on the underside. This round section additionally contains perforations that permit for cool air to be drawn in earlier than exiting by means of the copper warmth spreader’s fins. In contrast to the LIVA Q3D, the T8 Plus makes use of a single board design.
The RAM and the SoC package deal are below the warmth sink / followers, whereas the M.2 2230 slot for the WLAN / BT card, and the M.2 2242 SATA SSD slot are on the opposite facet (nearer to the highest panel). The pre-installed SSD is from FuturePath, however we had been unable to make out the identify of the controller producer regardless of the supply of the brand within the closing image of the above gallery. The CMOS battery and the WLAN antennae are affixed to the underside of the chassis prime panel.
Each techniques got here prepared with Home windows OS pre-installed. The complete specs of the 2 evaluate samples (as examined) are summarized within the desk beneath.
| Programs Specs (as examined) |
||
| ACEMAGIC T8 Plus | ECS LIVA Q3D | |
| Processor | Intel Processor N95 Alder Lake-N 4C/4T, 1.7 – 3.4 GHz Intel 7, 6MB L3, 15W (PL1 = 15W / PL2 = 15W) |
Intel Pentium Silver N6000 Jasper Lake 4C/4T, 1.1 – 3.3 GHz Intel 10nm, 4MB L3, 6W (PL1 = 10W / PL2 = 25W) |
| Reminiscence | Samsung K3LKBKB0BM-MGCP LPDDR5-3200 (Single-Channel / 4 x16) 36-32-32-68 @ 3200 MHz 16 GB |
Micron MT53E1G32D2NP-046 LPDDR4X-2933 (Single-Channel / x32) 28-27-27-62 @ 2933 MHz 4 GB |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics (16EU @ 1200 MHz) |
Intel UHD Graphics 605 (32EU @ 350 – 850 MHz) |
| Disk Drive(s) | Futurepath FPT310M4SSD512G (512 GB; SATA III 6 Gbps;) (?? TLC NAND; ?? Controller) |
Kingston Y29128 (128 GB; eMMC 5.1 HS400;) (3D TLC; Phison PS8229 Controller) |
| Networking | 2x GbE RJ-45 (Realtek RTL8168/8111) Realtek RTL8821CE Wi-Fi 5 / Bluetooth 4.2 (1×1 802.11ac – 433 Mbps) |
1x GbE RJ-45 (Realtek RTL8168/8111) Realtek RTL8822CE Wi-Fi 5 (2×2 802.11ac – 867 Mbps) |
| Audio | 3.5mm Audio Jack Digital audio and bitstreaming help over HDMI Outputs |
Digital Audio and Bitstreaming Help over HDMI and DisplayPort Outputs |
| Video | 3x HDMI 2.1 (as much as 4Kp60) | 1x HDMI 2.0a 1x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| Miscellaneous I/O Ports | 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Kind-A | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Kind-A (Entrance) 1x USB 2.0 Kind-A (Entrance) 1x microSDXC (Aspect) |
| Working System | Home windows 11 Enterprise (22000.2360) | Home windows 11 Enterprise (22000.2124) |
| Pricing | (Road Pricing on Sep 18th, 2023) US $207 ($177) (with restricted use / restricted time coupon UQSYLW9R) |
US $285 (w/ 128 GB eMMC, 4GB LPDDR4X, and OS) |
| Full Specs | ACEMAGIC T8 Plus Specs | ECS LIVA Q3D Specs |
Within the subsequent part, we check out the system setup and comply with it up with an in depth platform evaluation.
