PC World New Zealand Finally, a good use for Intel s lowly Atom CPU: In.
Finally, a good use for Intel s lowly Atom CPU: Inside NASA s $2.7B Perseverance rover
The Atom had to go to Mars to get some respect. Credit: NASA
Intel’s underpowered Atom CPU has finally found some respect on Mars. The lowly chip had a tough time on Earth, winning the faintest of praise for its pedestrian performance. But its energy-sipping ways were apparently a good fit for a couple of compute modules that NASA built into its $2.7 billion Perseverance rover.
Intel said Monday that there are at least two Atom SoCs embedded inside of Perseverance. The chip is the main processor aboard a COMEX-IE38 computing module developed by Israel-based CompuLab.
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Intel’s underpowered Atom CPU has finally found some respect on Mars. The lowly chip had a tough time on Earth, winning the faintest of praise for its pedestrian performance. But its energy-sipping ways were apparently a good fit for a couple of compute modules that NASA built into its $2.7 billion Perseverance rover.
Intel said Monday that there are at least two Atom SoCs embedded inside of Perseverance. The chip is the main processor aboard a COMEX-IE38 computing module developed by Israel-based CompuLab.
The COMEX-IE38 is built around Intel’s 22nm Atom E3800 and runs up to 8GB of DDR3 and 64GB of storage along with Gigabit ethernet, PCIe, SATA, USB and serial UARTs.