Details of Intel "Rangeley" Atom processors

In the past months we reported on upcoming ValleyView and Avoton processors, based on the next generation Atom microarchitecture, codenamed "Silvermont". ValleyView is a line of ULV microprocessors for tablet, desktop, mobile and embedded markets, and Avoton chips are aimed at the micro-server market. In addition to these two platforms, Intel plans Rangeley processors for the networking and communications market. These products are implemented as a system on a chip (SoC), integrating up to 8 CPU cores and a number of I/O components.

Rangeley chips are very similar to Avoton processors, except that they add an Intel Crypto engine. Depending on SKU, the parts incorporate from 2 to 8 Atom cores, clocked up to 2.4 GHz. The cores use Silvermont out-of order microarchitecture, that is expected to be up to 35% faster per clock than existing 32nm Saltwell architecture. A list of CPU features, supported by the cores, includes SSE4 and AES instructions, and VT-x virtualization. Each pair of CPU cores share 1 MB L2 cache. The SoC also has a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, that supports to 64 GB of DDR3-1600 or DDR3L-1600 ECC memory. Other interfaces, integrated on the SoC, are 4 PCI Express 2.0 controllers with x16 lanes total, SATA, Gigabit, USB and legacy I/O. Overall, the SoC has 2 SATA 3 ports, and 4 of each SATA 2, Gigabit and USB 2.0 ports. Legacy I/O includes LPC, UART, SMBus, SPI and general purpose I/O.

New component in the Rangeley SoC is a Crypto engine, that implements Intel QuickAssist technology. This technology supports several ciphers, including 128-, 192- and 256-bit AES, 3DES, DES and Kasumi. It also provides authentication, public key encryption and a random number generator. Performance of the Crypto block is SKU dependent, reaching 10 Gbps for 128-bit AES (1 KB buffer) encryption for a top-end SKU.

We mentioned that some features of Rangeley processors are SKU dependent. Intel currently plans SKUs with entry-level, mainstream and maximum performance features. The top-end SKU will have about 20 Watt TDP and all of the features, described above. Mainstream SKU will have the number of cores slashed in half (to 4 cores), Crypto engine with 5 Gbps encryption throughput, and approximately 15 Watt TDP. Entry level SKUs will have 2 CPU cores, single channel DDR3 controller, 8 PCI-e lanes, and they will either lack the Crypto block, or have the block with low (2Gbps) encryption performance. TDP of these chips will be 7 Watt and 8 Watt.

Rangeley processors are expected to launch in the second half 2013.