Intelโ€™s CPU problem remains

In our last โ€œWhatโ€™s New?โ€ article, we reported on the general shortage of electronic components. However, this mainly affected DRAM memory chips and MLCC capacitors. Now Intel CPUs are also affected.

Whatโ€™s New? | spo-comm

In a statement, Intelโ€™s CEO announced that the company had not expected demand to be as high as it is currently. As a result, the electronics industry is currently suffering from an enormous shortage of almost all 6th generation CPUs, 7. and 8th generation. This has resulted in immense price increases.

What happens next is still uncertain. At spo-comm, we try to cushion the price increases as best we can, in your interest as well as ours. We advise our customers to discuss planned projects with us as soon as possible.

AMD Ryzen gains market share

In the third quarter of 2018, AMD continued to gain market share in the x86 processor segment, increasing it to over 10 percent. The Group is growing even more significantly, particularly in the area of mobile processors. Here, the share grew by a full 4.1 percentage points to almost 11%. AMD also has an impressive market share of 13 percent when it comes to desktop PCs.

Source: heise

eMMC: Learning how to save space from a smartphone

Where some time ago only the classic HDD hard disk was available, there are now various alternatives to choose from. The best known of these is probably the SSD (Solid State Disk). In this article, we explain exactly what the difference is between these two types of hard disk drives.

In the meantime, the so-called โ€œeMMCโ€ is also being talked about more and more frequently. But what is it actually? eMMC stands for โ€œEmbedded Multi Media Cardโ€, which means โ€œEmbedded Multimedia Cardโ€. This is a storage medium based on the MMC standard. Thanks to the energy and space savings and the technical similarity to the SD card, it is mainly used in compact, mobile devices.

Although the storage capacity of eMMC is only 16 GB to 128 GB, the price is significantly lower than that of SSDs. If you compare an eMMC hard disk with an HDD hard disk, the advantages of the eMMC are particularly evident when transferring 4K blocks.

Source: Wikipedia, SearchStorage

Our new spo-book BOX N4100 system, which will be launched next week, is also equipped with 32 GB of eMMC flash memory. Thanks to its HDMI and DisplayPort video output, this mini PC can be used as a digital signage player for simple 4K applications.

The history of the handle

The jack plug, as we know it today, evolved from the plugs that were used at the end of the 20th century. 19. and beginning 20th century were used in manual telephone exchanges. This makes the evolutionary line of jack plugs one of the  oldest in plug technology.

The typical area of application for the jack plug is the transmission of audio and video signals. In the past, it was also common to use the jack plug to supply power to small electronic devices. However, this is no longer used due to the increased risk of short circuits.

Design of the jack plug

In its simplest form, the plug consists of an elongated shaft and a spherical, rounded tip, which is separated by an insulating ring.

The jack plug has two main shapes, which differ in their shaft diameter: the plug with a diameter of 3.5 mm and the plug with a diameter of 6.3 mm. The mini jack with a diameter of 3.5 mm is usually found on portable devices such as smartphones or sound cards. The post connector has a diameter of 6.35 mm and is used in almost all devices in the music industry. There are also various other plugs with diameters of 2.5 mm, 4.4 mm, 5.2 mm and 7.1 mm, for example. However, these are rarely found and do not play a major role.

Special applications of the jack plug

In addition to the different shaft diameters, the jack plugs also differ in the number of poles. These include the mono plug with two poles, the three-pole stereo plug and the mono plug with balanced connection and three poles.

A special feature is the four-pole stereo plug with additional function. A total of four contacts are available with this plug. This stereo plug is used for connecting headsets, but also for transmitting multi-channel sound, audio, video and USB signals.

Color coding of the 3.5 mm plug

Our mini PCs also have various sockets for connecting jack plugs. There are special colors among the 3.5 mm plugs to distinguish the specifications.

  • pink        Mic-In
  • blue:         Line-In
  • green:        Line-Out
  • black:  Rear speaker output
  • silver:      Side speaker output
  • orange:    Subwoofer output

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SPDIF โ€“ Digital audio transmission: All in one

The abbreviation SPDIF, often also S/PDIF, stands for โ€œSony/ Philips Digital Interfaceโ€œ. Behind the serial interface are the companies Sony and Philips, who created the SPDIF specification for the transmission of digital stereo or audio signals. The special feature is that SPDIF can transmit both optically and electrically. The interface is mainly used with CD players, between DVD players and in the home cinema sector, as the connection means that only a single cable is required and cable harnesses can be avoided.

Plug connection of the SPDIF

Like any other interface, the SPDIF also has special connectors. Here we differentiate between electrical connectors and connectors for optical signal transmission. A so-called TOSLINK connection is used for the latter. The electrical transmission relies on an RCA connection with coaxial cable, in rare cases also on a 3.5 mm jack plug.

HDMI or SPDIF โ€“ Which to use for audio transmission?

Both HDMI and SPDIF transmit data digitally, whereby HDMI works purely electronically and SPDIF can also be optical. In contrast to HDMI, SPDIF is much older and therefore has an ever-increasing disadvantage: SPDIF was initially only intended for PCM and can no longer transmit the enormous bandwidths now used by DTS, for example. Although it is possible to downmix the data, this causes a significant loss of performance, which is not the case with HDMI. Another advantage of HDMI is the simultaneous transmission of video and audio data, which eliminates the need for an additional cable.

Q: chip.de, heise.de

spo-comm Mini-PC with SPDIF:

โ€“     WINDBOXIII Evo

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Universal Serial Bus โ€“ USB

The well-known abbreviation USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and describes a serial bus system that was developed by a merger of several companies โ€“ including NEC and Microsoft โ€“ for connecting peripheral devices to PCs. A computer with a USB port, but also USB sticks, can be connected to each other during operation, whereby the external device and its properties are automatically recognized. This process is known as hot plugging.

From USB 1.0 to USB 3.1 SuperSpeed โ€“ the development of the interface

The first USB 1.0 specification with a data rate of 12 Mbit/s was launched on the market in 1996. With the introduction of USB 2.0 in 2000, hard disks and video devices could now also be connected thanks to a data rate of up to 480 Mbps.

Ten years ago, the new specifications for USB 3.0 SuperSpeed โ€“ also known as USB 3.1 Gen. 1 โ€“ with a data rate of 5 Gbit/s were introduced. New cables, plugs and sockets were also introduced at the same time. In 2013, USB 3.1 โ€“ known as USB 3.1 Gen. 2 โ€“ which doubled the speed of its predecessor to 10 Gbit/s, was completed. The very latest USB 3.2 specification with a data rate of up to 20 Gbit/s was only published in 2017.

By the way: Every spo-comm Mini-PC system is equipped with at least one USB 3.0 port!

USB transmission technologies

USB communication is controlled by a host controller, which is usually installed on the mainboard. Only this controller can read the data of a device or send data to the device. However, the device may only send data if this is requested by the host controller.

There are four established standards to which the USB controller chips adhere and which differ in terms of their performance and the implementation of functions:

  • Universal Host Controller Interface(UHCI): Was specified by Intel in 1995 and offers data rates of 1.5 to 12Mbit/s.
  • Open Host Controller Interface(OHCI): Developed by a consortium of companies and only marginally faster than its counterpart UHCI.
  • Enhanced Host Controller Interface(EHCI): Provides USB 2.0 functions and is designed for Hi-Speed mode (480 Mbit/s). When transferring to a USB 1.0/1.1 device, OHCI & UHCI must still be supported.
  • Extensible Host Controller Interface(xHCI): xHCI was published by Intel in 2010, offers USB 3.0 functions and provides the SuperSpeed mode with 4.0 Gbit/s โ€“ with USB 3.1 even 9.7 Gbit/s.

The different connector types of a USB

The Universal Serial Bus has various plugs and sockets that differ in terms of their dimensions, but also in terms of the possible data transfer speeds.

The latest of these is the universal USB type C connection, which is also used in smartphones, among other things, due to its low height and width. Data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s or 1.25 Gb/s are possible here, as USB 3.1 Gen 2 is supported. The USBC interface is suitable for transferring audio and video data in parallel with USB data and also supports DisplayPort, PCIe & Thunderbolt.

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To the โ€œWhat is LAN?โ€ article

What do I need LAN for?

The acronym LAN stands for Local Area Network and describes a computer network that is spatially limited. For example, if a mini PC is connected to a network via a LAN cable, this PC can communicate with other computers to access servers, printers or an Internet connection, among other things. Of course, several Mini PCs can also be connected to one router โ€“ they are then simply in the same network.

The LAN or Ethernet cable RJ-45

To connect our Mini PCs to the network, two things are basically required: Firstly, the LAN socket on the PC and secondly, the appropriate LAN cable. First good news: All spo-comm Mini-PCs are equipped with at least one LAN interface.

The LAN cable โ€“ also known as Ethernet cable โ€“ has an RJ plug connection, where RJ stands for Registered Jack, i.e. a standardized plug connection for telecommunications cabling. This standard describes the design of the plugs and sockets, as well as their contact assignment. The standard RJ-45 has an 8P8C assignment: This means that there are 8 possible contact positions (P) and 8 of these are the contacts that are actually assigned (C). Cables in categories 5/5e to 6e are available for this cable type.

From LAN to wireless LAN

In order to connect devices such as our Mini PCs with other devices, a LAN connection is not absolutely necessary for all systems. Some of our Mini PCs can also be connected to other devices via integrated or optional WLAN. WLAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network, i.e. a wireless connection within a computer network.

Wake on LAN โ€“ WOL

The abbreviation WOL stands for Wake on LAN and is a standard published by AMD that makes it possible to start a computer that is switched off via the built-in network card. The general requirement that a PC must fulfill in order to support WOL is that the network card continues to be supplied with power via the standby power branch of the power supply unit even when the PC is switched off. Incidentally, this is the case with all spo-comm Mini-PCs.

LAN expansion cards

Of course, there are also special LAN expansion cards that are not on board as standard. Such cards are used to increase the number of network interfaces on a PC. This is particularly advantageous if one and the same Mini PC needs to access several networks or network devices, such as IP-based surveillance cameras, at the same time. With our mini PCs from the BRICK series and two of the RUGGED PCs, the RUGGED Q170 and the RUGGED GTX 1050Ti, there is a special adapter plate.  The NOVA CUBE Q87 works with a PCI expansion card.

If you have any further questions about LAN, Wake on LAN settings or similar, please contact us by e-mail.

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Shortage of electronic components

DRAM memory chips have been in short supply for several months now. Passive components such as MLCC capacitors are now also being added. As the current demand is higher than the manufacturersโ€™ supply, the components have risen in price accordingly.

The same applies to spo-comm systems: components for some systems are in short supply. For the spo-book WINDBOX II Quad, for example, both we and our suppliers currently need a longer lead time.

For you, this means that orders placed at short notice may be subject to longer delivery times. If you have already planned projects for which a fixed delivery date is required, please allow for the slightly longer delivery times.

Source: heise.de

What is behind Tegra from Nvidia?

The term Tegra refers to a single-chip system based on the ARM architecture  (โ€œSoCโ€, stands for: System on a Chip) from Nvidia. This system is primarily intended for use in cell phones, cars and tablet PCs. The Tegra contains everything from CPU and memory to a graphics chip with integrated video encoder and decoder.

More about SoC

A system like the Tegra focuses primarily on the development of AI computers. Certain developer kits, which are available for every Tegra chip, also offer more specialized applications such as deep learning, autonomous machines and multi-camera solutions.

You will soon find out what the new Tegra model in the spo-comm range has to offer.

Processes at spo-comm regarding Windows updates

We at spo-comm attach great importance to installing all Windows updates before we send systems to our customers. However, it may also be the case that there are delays with so-called major Windows updates. This is due to the fact that they are time-consuming on the one hand and often involve various additional patches on the other. The nimble hands in our production department also need some time to create special customer images.
If you would like us to update your customer image at shorter intervals, please contact us by e-mail or telephone.

Definition TDP according to Intel

Intel defines TDP in one of its white papers as follows: โ€œThe upper point of the thermal profile consists of the Thermal Design Power (TDP) and the associated Tcaseยฌ value.  Thermal Design Power (TDP) should be used for processor thermal solution design targets. TDP is not the maximum power that the processor can dissipate.โ€

Tcase describes the temperature measurement via a thermocouple embedded in the center of the heat distributor. The original measurement is carried out at the factory. After production, Tcase is calibrated by the BIOS. The measurement results are read on a diode between and below the cores. (Source: Intel)

According to Intel, TDP therefore represents a guideline value for the recommended heat dissipation, among other things. At the same time, the Thermal Design Power says nothing about the maximum possible power output.

ComputerBase.de lists another Intel definition in one of its current articles: According to this, TDP also stands for โ€œthe average power consumption (in watts) that the processor derives when operating at base frequency with all cores active at a highly complex workload defined by Intelโ€.

It is true that we can only speculate as to what exactly is meant by a โ€œhighly complex workloadโ€. What is clear from this definition, however, is that the thermal design power is in no way based on the turbo clock rates of a processor. As the Thermal Design Power refers exclusively to the base clock of a CPU, it is therefore not possible to deduce how much power a processor consumes throughout the day.

Definition TDP according to AMD

Intel also mentions AMDโ€™s definition of thermal design power in its white paper. According to AMD, TDP means: โ€œThe thermal design power is the maximum power a processor can draw for a thermally significant period while running commercially useful software.โ€ The constraining conditions for TDP are specified in the notes in the thermal and power tables.โ€

ComputerBase.de also lists a further definition of AMD:
โ€œThe TDP is a strict measure of the thermal power dissipation of an ASIC (= Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), which defines the minimum cooling system required to achieve the specified performance.โ€

Consequently, this would mean that a CPU can only achieve the intended performance as long as the performance is not throttled by excessive temperatures. At the maximum permissible ambient temperature, the CPU must therefore dissipate the power loss that ensures that the temperature of the CPU is exactly at its critical limit.

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UHD, 4K and 8K โ€“ how are they connected?

Letโ€™s start with the terminology: UHD stands for Ultra High Definition (literally โ€œultra-high resolutionโ€). The โ€œKโ€ in 4K and 8K stands for the number one thousand. We explain what this is all about below.
The term UHD covers two different picture resolutions. The first is UHD-1 and the second is UHD-2, which has a resolution of 3840 ร— 2160 pixels and stands for what is normally understood as 4K. In the cinema sector, however, there is a different resolution, namely 4096 ร— 2160 pixels. The term 4K is derived precisely from this 4 thousand number, which stands for the horizontal pixels.

UHD-2 or 8K โ€“ no longer just dreams of the future

In contrast to 4K, 8K doubles both the horizontal and vertical number of pixels. This means that a total of four times as many pixels can be displayed โ€“ 33 million in total โ€“ and this corresponds to a resolution of 7680 ร— 4320 pixels.
Not only the increase in resolution, but also the expansion of the color space (WCG, Wider Color Gamut), the contrast range (HDR, Higher Dynamic Range) and the increase in the refresh rate to a maximum of 120fps go hand in hand with 8K.

With HDMI 2.1 from 4K to 8K and up to 10K resolution

8K requires a data rate of 24 Gbit/s and therefore also a special cable that meets this requirement. In January 2017, the HDMI Forum published the final specifications for a suitable cable. This is the successor to HDMI 2.0: HDMI 2.1. This cable enables a data rate of 48 Gbit/s for 8K@60Hz and therefore also exceeds the DisplayPort standard, which has allowed around 32 Gbit/s since version 1.3 (see also โ€œVGA, DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI โ€“ What is the difference between these multimedia interfaces?โ€). With compression of the HDMI 2.1 cable, a resolution of 10,328 ร— 7,760, i.e. 10K, is even possible.

8K with spo-comm Mini-PCs

We currently have two mini PCs in our range that can play 8K content. One of these is our well-known digital signage player par excellence: the spo-book KUMO IV . This actively cooled mini PC can play content in a resolution of up to 8K thanks to its dedicated nVidia GTX 1060 graphics card with 6 GB DDR5 VRAM. The second in the group is our latest system โ€“ the spo-book RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti . This PC is also equipped with a dedicated nVidia graphics card โ€“ and unlike the KUMO IV, it is also passively cooled. As the name suggests, the system is equipped with an nVidia GTX 1050 Ti, with 4GB of memory and up to 32GB of video RAM. An 8K video wall is also possible with the help of four of the seven HDMI connections.

Are you curious?

Configure spo-book KUMO V here and test it for free!

Configure your spo-book RUGGED GTX1050 Ti here and test it for free!

AMD processors for high performance in embedded computing

With the new embedded processors, which go by the name of Ryzen, AMD is presenting a new benchmark and thus opening fire against its competitor Intel. These CPUs are mainly used for embedded applications with high performance requirements. These include digital signage applications, which have to process high-resolution 4K content, as well as use in smart robotics and vehicle computing. AMD processors also feature integrated GPUs based on the latest AMD Radeon Vega architecture.

Source: elektronikpraxis.vogel.de

AMDโ€™s 7nm next-level GPUs

AMD dropped a bombshell at this yearโ€™s Computex. The US chip developer has announced that professional Radeon Intel products based on the new Vega 20 GPU will be released this year. This is manufactured using the so-called 7 nm process and is aimed at the B2B market. It is not yet clear whether consumers will be able to enjoy Vega 20. However, it is clear that gamers will also be able to enjoy 7 nm products. In addition, AMD has not yet released any information about the technical specifications. It was only announced that there will be a memory expansion of 32 gigabytes of HBM 2, which also increases the memory bandwidth to 4,096 due to the four HBM2 stacks.

Source: computerbase.de

Windows 7 support discontinued

Last year, Microsoft and Intel announced that new CPUs would only be supported on the latest Windows โ€“ we are talking about Windows 10 here. Conversely, this means that there is no longer driver support for Kaby Lake processors under Windows 7 and 8.1. Windows 7 support for Skylake CPUs has been extended by Microsoft until 2020. However, Microsoft advises upgrading to Windows 10 as soon as CPUs that were launched on the market from August 2016 onwards are used. This currently affects both the Kaby Lake generation already mentioned and the Coffee Lake generation presented in October 2017.
For this reason, spo-comm will only offer support for Windows 10 for new systems in future.

Source: heise.de

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Spectre Next Generation

Research teams have currently discovered eight new security vulnerabilities in Intel CPUs. All eight are essentially due to the same design problem and are therefore called โ€œSpectre Next Generationโ€. The loopholes are currently still being kept โ€˜secretโ€™ โ€“ exclusive information on this is available to cโ€™t.

High-risk for clouds

Intel classifies four of these eight vulnerabilities as high-risk โ€“ the others are labeled as โ€˜mediumโ€™. According to cโ€™t, one of the next-generation vulnerabilities is particularly threatening: it can be exploited for attacks across the boundaries of virtual machines. This poses an enormous security risk, especially for cloud hosters, as passwords and secret keys for data transmission are at risk. In addition, Intelโ€™s Software Guard Extension for protecting sensitive data is not protected against Spectre.

CPU patches in progress

cโ€™t only has information from Intel and their patch plans so far. Each of the eight next-generation gaps requires its own patches, which Intel is already working on โ€“ in some cases together with operating system manufacturers. Intel is planning two patch waves: The first is to take place in May, the second is planned for August. It is recommended to install these Spectre Next Generation updates quickly.

Statement from Intel

โ€œProtecting our customersโ€™ data and ensuring the security of our products is a top priority at Intel. We are constantly working closely with customers, partners, other chip manufacturers and security researchers to understand and solve problems. This process also includes reserving blocks of CVE numbers. We stand firmly behind the concept of coordinated disclosure [von Schwachstellen] and will share additional information on potential issues as we finalize safeguards. As a general rule, we recommend that everyone continuously updates their systems.โ€

[UPDATE]: First patches postponed

As mentioned in the text above, the first patches for the Spectre-NG vulnerabilities were already planned for this May โ€“ Monday, May 7th to be exact. This has now passed and there are no patches: Intel asked for a delay.
Obviously Intel has problems to provide updates in time and has now postponed the release โ€“ for the time being for 2 weeks, the new date is May 21st. This is when new microcode updates are to be made available and Intel wants to announce information on two of the Spectre Next Generation vulnerabilities at the same time. According to heise โ€“ with exclusive information โ€“ this date is not yet fixed either: Intel is said to have already applied for a further deadline extension until July 10. [UPDATE /]

Source: heise; cโ€™t

Read the latest article on Intelโ€™s Spectre and Meltdown