Choose the Right Hardware Solution for Your Real-Time System

Key Takeaways

  • Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series provides highest compute performance suitable for workload consolidation.

  • 11th Gen Intel® Core™ has a balanced performance/watt with wide variety of Intel technologies to support IoT applications.

  • Intel Atom® x6000E Series is the lowest power consumption with dedicated offload engine for flexibility to offload IoT services.

  • All Intel platforms that support real-time features provides adequate amount of system interfaces to support real-time systems for industrial applications.

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In this module, you will learn:

  • Features available in industrial grade and real-time capable Intel processors.
  • Comparisons between Intel real-time capable platforms based on hardware features that are commonly used in a real-time system.
  • Links to purchase Customer Reference Board and development kits to evaluate Intel's real-time solution. 

Introduction to Intel®-based Real-Time Platforms

Intel® processors are multipurpose, serving a wide range of use cases, and deliver high compute performance within allotted time windows. You can use a wide variety of Intel® processors to create real-time systems and other embedded applications, utilizing other advanced capabilities such as Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) for low-latency Ethernet network systems, hypervisors for virtualized environments, and functional safety features.

Industrial processors recommended for real-time applications:

Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series 11th Gen Intel® Core™ Intel Atom® x6000E Series

Intel® Xeon® W-11865MRE processor

 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1185GRE processor Intel Atom® x6212RE processor

Intel® Xeon® W-11865MLE processor

 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1145GRE processor Intel Atom® x6212RE processor

Intel® Xeon® W-11555MRE processor

 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-1115GRE processor Intel Atom® x6414RE processor

Intel® Xeon® W-11555MLE processor

   Intel Atom® x6425RE processor

Intel® Xeon® W-11155MRE processor

   Intel Atom® x6427FE processor

Intel® Xeon® W-11155MLE processor

   Intel Atom® x6200FE processor
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There are many considerations for choosing a processor platform such as performance, cache architecture, and interconnectivity with your I/O modules.

This article provides a brief overview of these considerations and how they can potentially impact your real-time operations.

Hardware Factors to Consider

This article discusses four primary factors to consider when choosing the best-fit hardware from a variety of Intel platform offerings for real-time use cases.

CPU Specification

Intel provides a wide range of processor choices that can meet developer requirements to build a real-time system. In general, Intel® Xeon®, Intel® Core™, and Intel Atom® processors are capable of supporting real-time computing tasks, hardware-assisted virtualization - Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), and workload consolidation. 

With some SKUs offering substantial graphics capabilities, these processors can help improve both video stream processing and AI inference. Some of the processors also support extended temperature ranges that satisfy ruggedized requirements in industrial environments. 

Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series

  • Highest CPU performance, suitable for multiple workload consolidation
  • Support configurable TDP-down (cTDP-down)
  • Support a wide variety of Intel's advanced technologies

11th Gen Intel® Core™

  • Balanced performance/watt (up to 4 cores with configurable TDP-up & down)
  • Support a wide variety of Intel's advanced technologies

Intel Atom® x6000E Series

  • Lowest TDP CPU with performance, suitable for passive or active thermal design
  • Dedicated offload engine (Intel® Programmable Services Engine)

Show more Show less
Processor SKU TDP cTDP-up cTDP-down Cores Threads Freq @ TDP Freq @ cTDP-up Freq @ cTDP-down Max Turbo Frequency Supported Technologies Temp Range
Intel® Xeon® W-11865MRE 45W N/A 35W 8 16

2.6 GHz

 N/A 2.1 GHz

4.7 GHz

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® Functional Safety Essential Design Package (Intel® FSEDP)

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Xeon® W-11865MLE

25W

 N/A N/A

8

16

1.5 GHz

 N/A N/A

4.5 GHz

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® FSEDP

TSN

0C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Xeon® W-11555MRE

45W

 N/A 35W

6

12

2.6 GHz

 N/A 2.1 GHz

4.5 GHz

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® FSEDP

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Xeon® W-11555MLE

25W

 N/A N/A

6

12

1.9 GHz

 N/A N/A

4.4 GHz

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® FSEDP

TSN

0C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Xeon® W-11155MRE

45W

 N/A 35W

4

8

2.4 GHz

 N/A 1.9 GHz

4.4 GHz

Intel® VT

TSN

 

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Xeon® W-11155MLE

25W

 N/A N/A

4

8

1.8 GHz

 N/A N/A

3.1 GHZ

Intel® VT

TSN

0C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Core™ i7-1185GRE

15W

 28W 12W

4

8

1.8 GHz

 2.8 GHz 1.2GHz

4.4 GHZ

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® FSEDP

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Core™ i5-1145GRE

15W

 28W 12W

4

8

1.5 GHz

 

 2.6 GHz 1.1 GHz

4.1 GHZ

Intel® VT

Intel vPro® platform

Intel® FSEDP

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel® Core™ i3-1115GRE

15W

 28W 12W

2

4

2.2 GHz

 

 3.0 GHz 1.7 GHz

3.9 GHZ

Intel® VT

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel Atom® x6212RE Processor

6W

 N/A N/A

2

2

 1.2 GHz N/A N/A N/A

Intel® VT

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel Atom® x6414RE Processor

9W

 N/A N/A

4

4

 1.5 GHz N/A N/A N/A

Intel® VT

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel Atom® x6425RE Processor

12W

 N/A N/A

4

4

 1.9 GHz N/A N/A N/A

Intel® VT

TSN

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel Atom® x6427FE Processor

12W

 N/A N/A

4

4

 1.9 GHz N/A N/A N/A

Intel® VT

TSN

Intel® Safety Island (Intel® SI)

-40C

to

+100C

Tj

Intel Atom® x6200FE Processor

4.5W

 N/A N/A 2 2 1.0 GHz N/A N/A N/A

Intel® VT

TSN

Intel® Safety Island (Intel® SI)

-40C

to

+100C

Tj
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Cache Architecture

Larger cache size is preferable for high performance demands and you will typically find larger caches on Intel® Xeon® W-11000E Series processors as compared to 11th Gen Intel® Core™ processors, and Intel Atom® x6000E Series processors.

All three processor series feature a shared Level 3 (L3) or last-level cache (LLC), with Intel Atom® processors featuring a shared L2 cache as well.

These processor series also feature Cache Allocation Technology (CAT), which allows you to partition shared caches and grant exclusive access for specific partitions to high-priority processes.

This helps reduce jitter that results from cache sharing and is covered in greater detail in the Introduction to Intel® TCC Mode article.

Processor SKU Cores L1 Cache L2 Cache L3 Cache
Intel® Xeon® W-11865MRE / Intel® Xeon® W-11865MLE

8

Private for each core

Private for each core

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

24 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 2 MiB

Intel® Xeon® W-11555MRE / Intel® Xeon® W-11555MLE

4

Private for each core

Private for each core

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

12 MiB divided into 8 equal cache ways of 1536 KiB

Intel® Xeon® W-11155MRE / Intel® Xeon® W-11155MLE

4

Private for each core

Private for each core

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

8 MiB divided into 8 equal cache ways of 1 MiB

Intel® Core™ i7-1185GRE

4

Private for each core

Private for each core

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

12,288 KiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 1024 KiB

Intel® Core™ i5-1145GRE

4

Private

Private

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

8,288 KiB divided into 8 equal cache ways of 1024 KiB

Intel® Core™ i3-1115GRE

2

Private for each core

Private for each core

1,280 KiB divided into 20 equal cache ways of 64 KiB

Shared

6,144 KiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 512 KiB

Intel Atom® x6212RE Processor

2

Private for each core

Shared

1.5 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 128 KiB

Shared

4 MiB divided into 16 equal cache ways of 256 KiB

Intel Atom® x6414RE Processor

4

Private for each core

Shared

1.5 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 128 KiB

Shared

4 MiB divided into 16 equal cache ways of 256 KiB

Intel Atom® x6425RE Processor

4

Private for each core

Shared

1.5 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 128 KiB

Shared

4 MiB divided into 16 equal cache ways of 256 KiB

Intel Atom® x6427FE Processor

4

Private for each core

Shared

1.5 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 128 KiB

Shared

4 MiB divided into 16 equal cache ways of 256 KiB

Intel Atom® x6200FE Processor

2

Private for each core

Shared

1.5 MiB divided into 12 equal cache ways of 128 KiB

Shared

2 MiB divided into 8 equal cache ways of 256 KiB
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Memory and I/O Connectivity

Depending on use cases, different real-time systems will have different memory and I/O connectivity requirements. Each Intel® processor series with support for real-time use cases provides different memory capacity and I/O connectivity to support configuration expansion and various networking requirements. 

Processor Series Memory Types Integrated TSN MAC Max PCIe Lanes Max High-Speed I/O Lanes Thunderbolt™ 4 USB
Intel® Xeon® W11000E Series

DDR4-3200, In-Band ECC

2x 2.5GbE

x20 PCIe 4.0 (CPU)

x24 PCIe 3.0 (PCH)

 30 configurable lanes (PCH) 4 ports

4x USB3.0

10x USB2.0
11th Gen Intel® Core™ processors DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4267, In-Band ECC 1x 2.5GbE

x4 PCIe 4.0

x12 PCIe 3.0 (PCH)

 12 configurable lanes (PCH) 4 ports

4x USB3.1

10x USB2.0
Intel Atom® x6000E Series 4x32 LPDDR4/x 4267MT/s Max (8GB, 16GB, @3200MT/s) / 2x64 DDR4 3200MT/s Max 32GB
Max 32GB with In-Band ECC		 3x 2.5GbE x8 PCIe 3.0 12 configurable lanes (PCH) - 

4x USB3.0/3.1

10x USB2.0
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Select and Compare

You can get specification comparison between Intel® Xeon® W-11000E series processors, 11th Gen Intel® Core™ processors, and Intel Atom® x6000E Series processors with the Intel device selector.

Introduction to BSP and Intel® TCC Mode for Real-time Applications

Previous Module

Learn how Intel® TCC and Board Support Package for real-time-capable processors can help achieve deterministic latencies for real-time systems.

Laser Engraving Real-Time Application: Set Up, Configure and Evaluate Real-Time Solution

Next Module

Step-by-step guide to set up development environment with Intel®  products, apply the necessary settings and evaluate the solution with measurement tools provided by Intel.

Back to Intel Time Coordinated Computing Learning Path Homepage

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.