14 DAY TRIAL // Marvell is known for making unusual chips that end up going beyond standards. In fact, last year, the hardware maker demonstrated its Plug Computing initiative when it released the SheevaPlug development platform, meant to build extremely cheap, low-power CPUs used in small Plugtop PCs that connect devices with each other. Now, the company has unveiled the SoC meant to power the next wave of such products, the Armada 310.
Set to be used in plugtop PCs and other systems, the new SoC means to change the way the industry looks upon power efficiency. To put it bluntly, Marvell's Armada 310 can enable everything a Pogoplug is capable of with five times less power.
A Pogoplug is a popular plugtop PC (small form factor server), which can handle web connectivity and USB storage devices while consuming only 5W of power. Marvell's fresh system-on-chip, built onto a 15 x 15mm FCBGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid Array), plans to allow this, and even more, while using just 1 W. Basically, in addition to USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet ports, the Armada 310 includes I/O options like a pair of SATA 2.0 connectors, a 16-bit DDR2/3 interface and an embedded 16-bit LCD controller.
The part is based on ARM Holding's plc's MPU technology and the 55-nm manufacturing process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). As for the processor itself, it will have a clock speed ranging between 600-MHz and 1GHz, has the ability to power down as low as 700mW and “features a four-way, set-associative L1 16-KB I-cache/16-KB D-cache and a 256-KB, unified four-way, set-associative L2 cache.” The Armada 310 is already selling, for only $15 when acquired in a bulk (in 10,000-unit quantities).