Intel Quark is a line of32-bitx86SoCs andmicrocontrollers byIntel, designed for small size and low power consumption, and targeted at new markets includingwearable devices. The line was introduced atIntel Developer Forum in 2013, and discontinued in January 2019.[1]
Quark processors, while slower thanAtom processors, are much smaller and consume less power. They lack support forSIMD instruction sets (such asMMX andSSE)[2] and only supportembedded operating systems.
Quark powers the (now discontinued)Intel Galileo developer microcontroller board.[3] In 2016Arduino released the Arduino 101 board that includes an Intel Quark SoC.[4][5] The CPUinstruction set is, for most models, the same as aPentium (P54C/i586) CPU.[6]
The first product in the Quark line is the single-core32 nm X1000SoC with aclock rate of up to 400 MHz. The system includes several interfaces, includingPCI Express,serialUART,I²C,Fast Ethernet,USB 2.0,SDIO,power management controller, andGPIO. There are 16 kB of on-chipembeddedSRAM and an integratedDDR3memory controller.[7][8]
A second Intel product that includes Quark core, theIntel Edison microcomputer, was presented in January 2014. It has aform factor close to the size of anSD card, and is capable of wireless networking usingWi-Fi orBluetooth.[9]
In January 2015, Intel announced thesub-miniature Intel Curie module for wearable applications, based on aQuark SE core with 80 kBSRAM and 384 kBflash.[10] At the size of a button, it also features a 6-axis accelerometer, a DSP sensor hub, aBluetooth LE unit and a battery charge controller.
Intel announced the end-of-life of its Quark products in January 2019, with orders accepted until July 2019 and final shipments set for July 2022.[1][11]
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The nameLakemont has been used in reference to the processor core in multiple Quark-series processors.[12]: 4 [13]: 42
Source:[14]
(The L2 cache column shows the size of the L1 cache.)
| Model | sSpec number | Cores | Clock rate | GPU frequency | L2 cache | I/O bus | Memory | Voltage | TDP | Socket | Release date | Part number(s) | Release price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quark X1000 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q4'13 |
| $9.63 |
| Quark X1001 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q2'14 |
| $11.77 |
| Quark X1010 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q1'14 |
| $10.16 |
| Quark X1011 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q2'14 |
| $12.31 |
| Quark X1020 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q2'14 |
| $11.45 |
| Quark X1020D |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q1'14 |
| $10.70 |
| Quark X1021 |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q2'14 |
| $13.39 |
| Quark X1021D |
| 1 | 400 MHz | — | 16 KB | PCIe | DDR3-800 (ECC) | 0.95–1.1 V | 2.2 W |
| Q2'14 |
| $12.85 |
XCHG are not supported)[15]| Model | sSpec number | Cores | Clock rate | GPU frequency | L2 cache | I/O bus | Memory | Voltage | TDP | Socket | Release date | Part number(s) | Release price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quark D1000 |
| 1 | 32 MHz | — | AHB-Lite,APB[16]: 30 | eSRAM | 1.62–3.63 V |
|
| Q3'15 | DMNIAD01SLVBT | $2.54 |
| Model | sSpec number | Cores | Clock rate | GPU frequency | L2 cache | I/O bus | Memory | Voltage | TDP | Socket | Release date | Part number(s) | Release price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quark D2000 |
| 1 | 32 MHz | — | AHB-Lite,[13]: 72 APB[13]: 96 | eSRAM | 1.62–3.63 V | 0.025 W |
| Q3'15 | FND2000 | $2.54 |
| Model | sSpec number | Cores | Clock rate | GPU frequency | L2 cache | I/O bus | Memory | Voltage | TDP | Socket | Release date | Part number(s) | Release price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quark SE C1000 |
| 1 | 32 MHz | — | 8 KB | AHB-Lite, APB | eSRAM | 1.8–3.3 V | 0.025 W |
| Q4'15 | LMCQ1000 | $10.32 |
Intel Quark SoC X1000 contains a bug (#71538)[17] that "under specific circumstances" results in a type of crash known as asegfault. The workaround implemented by Intel is to omitLOCK prefixes (not required on single-threaded processors) in the compiled code.[18] While source-based embedded systems like those built using theYocto Project can incorporate this workaround at compile time, general purpose Linux distributions such asDebian are deeply affected by the bug. Such a workaround is not easy to implement in binaries meant to supportmultithreading too as they require LOCK prefixes to function properly.[19]