A guide to IoT processors | Hacker News Reader

A guide to IoT processors

imgtec.com

16 pointsalexvoica15 comments

I'm not quite sure how this is a guide. The ESP8266, arguably the most low-cost WiFi capable chip, is not even mentioned.

Also, according to the article, "high-density compute nodes feature a heterogeneous CPU architecture" which is needed for "green computing-type systems (e.g. network and storage systems, cloud computing or large-scale data centers)". I have no idea what that means.

It's a marketing piece to highlight Imagination Technologies offerings. The title is misleading.

No, that is not the primary purpose. I've called out products related to Imagination five times (and all of them in block diagram/images used to illustrate practical examples) in an article of 1,300 words.

I've tried to break down the different IoT categories and identify generic characteristics that apply to them. There are of course hundreds of specific SoCs to choose from but they all typically fall under one of the five categories I've mentioned.

High-density compute nodes are a specific type of processors that have manycore CPUs. The reason they are called high-density is because they pack tens or hundreds of small CPU cores onto a single die. These types of small cores don't provide massive single-threaded performance by themselves but when added together, they can be quite compelling. This is a different approach to having a few but very powerful cores such as Intel Xeons on an SoC. An analogy would be a flock of starlings versus an eagle. Moreover, many CPU designers today have abandoned the practice of scaling in frequency to achieve performance and are focused more and more on performance per watt (hence the term green computing). This is because the costs associated with powering and cooling a data center are rapidly rising.

> This is because the costs associated with powering and cooling a data center are rapidly rising.

Because when I think "IoT", the first place I think of is a datacenter...

You might not, but where do you think the vast amount of data produced by IoT devices is going to go?

Somewhere other than an IoT device?

It usually goes like IoT device - gateway - data center. IoT devices are having a massive impact on data center architectures.

So any processor that ever touches data that came from an IoT device is an "IoT processor"?

I would agree that data center processors are not IoT processors. They're generic, server processors.

IoT == "connected devices"... with the emphasis on devices. i.e. embedded microcontrollers.

Also note that they themselves don't have to be packaged with some RF comms, plain old microcontrollers are entirely suitable for most cases.

> There are of course hundreds of specific SoCs to choose from but they all typically fall under one of the five categories I've mentioned.

Exactly why a guide would be useful to help understand the tradeoffs... which this guide does not supply.

OP is PR for Imagination Technologies.

...and no mention of ARM??

really? the most used micro of our time and quite possibly the most popular controller for IoT devices and there isn't a mention?

(This article is purely a press-release for the manufacturer).

They are competitors to ARM, so it's not really surprising. Agree with that this is just a press release - which mostly aren't neutral.

Duh.. I came here expecting to see a guide. Please change the title to reflect content of the article.

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