NXP has unveiled a new QorIQ communication processor with LS1046A based on quad ARM Cortex-A72 cores, and including 10GbE, PCIe Gen.3, SATA 3.0, and USB 3.0 interfaces. The processors targets CPE and vCPE (virtual Customer Premise Equipment), routers, NAS, and service provider gateways for the home and small office, as well as single board computers.
QorIQ LS1046A key specifications:
- CPU – Four ARM Cortex -A72 cores with 2MB L2 cache; 32,000 CoreMarks.
- Memory – 32-/64-bit DDR4 memory controller
- Storage – SATA 3.0 controller, quad SPI
- Connectivity
- 2x 10 Gigabit Ethernet controllers
- 1x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet controller
- 4x Gigabit Ethernet controllers
- Other peripherals
- 3x PCIe 3.0 Controllers, x4, x2, x 1
- 3x USB 3.0 with integrated PHY
- 4x UART, 4x I2C, SPI, GPIO
- JTAG
- Support for hardware-based virtualization via ARM SMMU
- Packet processing acceleration – Packet classification and distribution; hardware work scheduling, shaping, and buffer management.
- Integrated security engine – High-speed security protocol processing, including IPsec, SSL, DTLS, and IKE. SEC also supports high speed XORing for RAID 5 acceleration
- ARM TrustZone and NXP QorIQ trust architecture – Secure boot, secure debug, tamper detection, secure key storage
- Power consumption – “Total power under 10 W at 1.2 GHz for convection cooled designs”; “7 watt power envelop”
- Package – 23x23mm FCPBGA; pin-to-pin compatible with LS1023A, LS1043A, and LS1088A
The company also mentions LS1026A processor in the product page without much details, but it’s likely the dual core version of the processor.
NXP QorIQ LS1046A processor will become available in Q3 2016.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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What a beast with those 10Gb and Gb interfaces. Can we really expect this is in consumer CPE’s and devices in Q3 2016?
Hmmm, guessing this will be at least $20-25….
Not a bad chip though, but cost wise it won’t be competitive for consumer applications.
@TLS
Maybe it could be used in high-end routers like Turris Omnia?
@Sander
Sure can you expect designs like that. Will then look as crippled as LeMaker’s Cello: using a SoC that is capable of 2 x 10GbE and 14 x SATA and exposing 1 GbE (not 10GbE!) port and 2 times SATA on the board.
i would suspect that these kind of ARM SoCs are able to replace x86 designs in ‘high end’ NAS configurations and stuff like that.
I was considering a Turris, but this SoC makes me wish the Turris had it. Would make for a great VM box.
finally a server SoC. Hoping someone will build an affordable board. Tarantulas-Pi ???
@Bogolisk
Such ‘server SoCs’ exist for a long time, have a look at Marvell’s Armada series for example. Due to their design they deliver highest performance even if there ARM cores look often a bit weak (Armada 38x for example as used by Turris or Solid-Run’s Clearfog is a single/dual core Cortex-A9 able to saturate many GbE and SATA lines in parallel). Even others based on ARMv8 are available (AMD for example). But adding a few 10GbE PHY to the SoC will also add to price/consumption 😉
i fear even to imagine how much a “single board computer” with this will cost. taking into account this is freescale. but otherwise, throwing away all those virtualization acceleration marketing b$, it’s a pretty interesting SoC. hope some sbc vendors will release something with this, but please – not based on 96board “standard”, and hope I would be able to buy it. xD
Quite promising SoC for NAS, routers or personal clusters, sadly no one is going to make cheap dev boards with this kind of powerful SoC.
@Arnab, let’s wait and see – Freescale’s parts do enjoy popularity among makers, thanks to their superb documentation.
The specs mentioned 64bit DDR4 memory controller … does anyone knows how much real physical memory can it use? Many SOC seems to limit their memory to 2Gb.
8xA72 cores
http://www.xes-inc.com/products/sbcs/xpedite6370/
supports up to 16 GB of DDR4-2100 ECC SDRAM