Intel C3000 “Denverton” SoCs are Here (somewhat)

This is a long awaited update to the venerable Avoton lineup that we have been waiting on seemingly for years. Intel ARK has been updated with the Intel Atom Processor C3338 which is the first launched with Denverton product family. Denverton like Avoton will be targeted at low power embedded platforms. We wrote about the Intel Denverton platform in the Trends in Server Compute 2017 – Intel piece. That has a good background on the new line.

The Intel Atom Processor C3338 (Intel Atom C3338) is one of the lowest-end Denverton SKUs we have seen thus far. It is a 14nm, 2 core/ 2 thread part with a 1.5GHz base clock and a 2.2GHz Turbo clock. The Denverton cores are not equivalent to Broadwell-DE cores in terms of performance nor features. These Intel Atom C3338 chips are more appropriate for running low-end NAS units, networking appliances and the like rather than compute intensive and virtualization workloads. In fact, Denverton has expanded storage capabilities with “up to 10” SATA III ports depending on the configuration the motherboard maker uses for the platform.

We expect that there will be many more chips in the lineups launching over the coming months. Realistically, we are still a several or a few months away from commercial availability to buy platforms with Intel Atom C3000 chips. We have heard a few vendors push their plans for mITX solutions again. Stay tuned as STH will have extensive coverage of the Intel Atom C3000 series and Denverton as this line is fully launched. We are extremely excited for Denverton. We also think that Avoton and Rangeley boards will not be replaced in the near future with these and in terms of pricing we expect Denverton’s higher-end chips to be priced more commensurate with their performance similar to how we saw Intel Xeon D chips priced significantly higher for more cores.