Feature Comparison of the Intel® Joule™ Module and the Intel Atom® Processor E3900 Series

Introduction

This white paper presents a selected set of information including technical specifications and key features or advantages of the Intel® Joule™ module and the Intel Atom™ E3900 processor series (announced). It is intended to present high level information for designers and developers who would like to understand the key similarities and differences between the two.  For completeness, information on the Intel® Pentium® processor N3350 and the Intel® Celeron® processor N4200 series are also provided in Table 1 and Table 2.

A High Level Comparison

For many embedded applications, the Intel® Joule™ module, and the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series (announced), code named Apollo Lake, offer similar features. They both appear to be ideally suited for moderate computational tasks while using low power. They also both have Intel® HD Graphics capabilities that include HDMI output.  However, there are some key differences.

The Intel® Joule™ module is a pre-configured device that is meant to be plugged into a carrier board. It has two configuration options, the 570x and the 550x.  Because it is pre-configured, the design work required to take it to market is reduced to creating a carrier board that fits the specific application.  This reduced effort can potentially lower the production cost, while allowing for a faster time to market. 

The Intel Atom® processor E3900 series has a wide range of configuration options available.  As a traditional processor, design work is required to create a board to house the processor as well as the peripherals for the specific application.  This design work can cost more and take longer than developing a board for the Intel® Joule™ module, but for high volumes the overall cost can be less since a custom board may allow for a reduced Bill of Materials.

The major features of each are outlined below.

Features

Intel® Joule™ Module

Rapid prototyping, Accelerated Time to Market
Pre-installed storage and memory along with integrated wireless capabilities allow customers to accelerate time to market (less time making design considerations because the module comes with default features factory loaded).

Wireless Pre-Certification
The Intel® Joule™ module are pre-certified for distribution and sale into more than 80 countries, enabling customers to save on the cost (time and money) it takes to acquire certification.

Development Ecosystem
Developers on the Intel® Joule™ platform can take advantage of a vast hardware ecosystem through 3^rd party companies such as Gumstix*, DFRobot*, and Seeed* Studio.   More information can be found on the Intel® Joule™ Developer Kit page.

Operating System Options
The Intel® Joule™ module has support for Windows® 10 IoT Core, Ubuntu* Desktop 16.04, Ubuntu Snappy 16, and comes pre-installed with a Reference Linux* OS for IoT.

Intel Atom® Processor E3900 Series

Intel® Time Coordinated Computing (Intel® TCC)
IoT solutions can be made more reliable (consistent and predictable behavior of a system) with Intel® Time Coordinated Computing, a technology which coordinates and synchronizes the clocks of devices across networks (connected devices).

For applications that require a high level of determinism (applications whose behavior needs to be reliably predicted), Intel® TCC can help to resolve latency issues by synchronizing the clocks of connected devices (to within 1 microsecond).

To learn more about Intel® TCC, check out the Powering Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing Transformations solution brief.

Security
The new Intel® Trusted Execution Engine (Intel® TXE) enables you to achieve enhanced silicon-level security., Intel® TXE provides enhanced data and operations protection in some of the most challenging environments(retail transactions to manufacturing). Intel® TXE is matched with fast cryptographic execution and a number of secure boot features such as Intel® Boot Guard 2.0.

Extended Temperature
To support IoT applications in extreme environments, available SKUs offer operating temperature ranges from -40°C to 85°C and junction temperatures (maximum allowed temperature at the processor die) up to 110 °C.

Note: Designed for automotive and industrial markets, the extended temperature feature is offered by the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series only.

Enhanced Reliability with ECC Memory Options
Dual-channel error-correcting code memory (ECC memory) is available for DDR3L memory type to protect systems with no tolerance for data corruption under any circumstances.

More I/Os
The Intel Atom® processor E3900 series offers an expanded number of I/Os which allows for more connectivity (six USB 3.0 ports and four PCI Express* ports).

Table 1 below shows a side-by-side comparison of the Intel® Joule™ module and the Intel Atom® processor  E3900 series.  For completeness, information on the Intel® Pentium® N3350 processor series and the Intel® Celeron® N4200 processors series are also provided.

Comparison of Technical Specifications

Compare latest generation of the Intel Atom® ,  Pentium® and Celeron® processors with Intel® Joule™ 550x and 570x.

† Intel® Joule™ module exposes one dedicated USB3.0 port, and one additional port that can be configured as either USB3.0 or PCIe*, based on BIOS loaded.  This implies that the Joule module supports one of the two options:

1. Two USB3.0 ports and zero PCIe ports

2. One USB3.0 port and one PCIe port

‡ Board form factor

Design Considerations

For those considering starting with an Intel® Joule™ module based design and someday moving to an Intel Atom® processor E3900 series, here are some topics for consideration:

• Form factor
  The Intel Atom® processor E3900 series board area will probably increase because of a larger SoC package size, larger Power Management IC (PMIC) and Voltage Regulator (VR) solution space, and memory down (i.e. not package-on-package).
• Performance Differences
  Lower operating frequencies on latest generation of Intel Atom® processor E3900 series, smaller cache size per core pair (e.g. 2MB vs 1MB) may affect performance.  Memory configuration differences may have an impact since Intel Atom® processor E3900 series have higher peak BW, but lower transfer rate.
• I/O Interface Limitations
  Intel Atom® processor E3900 series supports a single LPSS SPI port, compared to Joule’s two LPSS SPI ports; The Intel® Joule™ module supports USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 OTG while the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series supports USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 dual-role (it does not support OTG).
• Component selection, validation and qualification
  Customers and designers will the need to consider validation and qualification differences caused by the differences of PMIC and Voltage Regulator components, the memory capacity and speeds, and any other components which may differ between the solutions.
• Completing design regulatory testing
  A design with the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series will need to go through various types of emissions certifications, safety certifications, and environmental certifications.
• Driver Compatibility
  Register compatibility and I/O location compatibility from an Intel® Joule™ module to an Intel Atom® processor E3900 series may require driver changes.
• Additional Features of the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series
  The Intel Atom® processor E3900 series has some new features and interfaces over Intel® Joule™ modules. Taking advantage of these interfaces and features may extend design and validation time of a migration, when compared to a situation where no new features are added.
• Wireless Technology
  There is no integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® on the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series.
• Power Management
  Intel® Joule™ module does not support traditional PC sleep states (S3 , S4, S5), while the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series does.
• Security
  Secure boot can only be done from the eMMC on the Intel® Joule™ module.  On the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series this can only be done through SPI. Intel Atom™ E3900 Series Processor solutions will need a custom BIOS.

Conclusion

This high level comparison gives a basic understanding of the differences between the Intel® Joule™ module and the Intel Atom® processor E3900 series.  For more information, refer to Additional Resources section below or visit intel.com.

Additional Resources

• www.ark.intel.com
• Intel® Atom™ Processor E3900 series, Intel® Celeron® Processor N3350, and Intel® Pentium® Processor N4200: Product Brief
• Documentation – Intel® Atom™ Processor E3900 Series, Intel® Celeron® Processor N3350, and Intel® Pentium® Processor N4200
• Intel® Joule™ Platform Fact Sheet

Appendix

Product SKUs for latest generation of Intel Atom™, Intel® Pentium® and Intel® Celeron® Processors

Intel® Joule™ Modules 550x and 570x