AMD’s Ryzen Embedded processors are designed for small, low-power computers. But the DFI GHF51 may be the smallest to date.
Measuring 84mm x 55mm (3.31″ x 2.17″) this single-board computer is about the size of a Raspberry Pi Model B. But rather than an ARM-based processor, the DFI GHF51 is powered by a 12-watt AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 series processor.
The little computer should be available later this year. There’s no word on the price yet, but I wouldn’t expect the GHF51 to be cheap. Not only is it much more powerful than a Raspberry Pi, but it’s also a more specialized device that’s likely aimed at hardware developers rather than the general public.
The DFI GHF51 features AMD Radeon Vega graphics with up to 3 compute units, support for H.265 video encoding and decoding, VP9 decoding, and support for up displays with resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 24 Hz.
The system supports 2GB to 8GB of single-channel DDR4-3200 memory, 16GB to 64GB of eMMC storage, and has a handful of ports including:
- 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C
- 2 x micro HDMI 1.4
DFI says its new single board computer supports Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 64-bit or Linux, but with a Ryzen Embedded x86_x64 processor, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to run Windows 10 Home or Pro on this thing as well.
Up until now, the smallest Ryzen Embedded PC I was aware of was the UDOO Bolt, but at 120mm x 120mm (4.72″ x 4.72″), that computer is nearly three times the size of the DFI GHF51.
This isn’t DFI’s first Raspberry Pi-sized PC with an x86 processor. The company also offers an ALF51 model with an Intel Atom E3900 processor, support for up to 4GB of RAM and a promise of 15 years of support for the CPU (according to Intel’s roadmap for its Internet of Things processors).
via LinuxGizmos
I like the idea, however I’d like to see exactly which SKU in the R1000 family they use. According to AMD, the highest-tier models in the R1000 family (R1606 and R1505) are scoring a 3DMark score around 2000. To compare this to a score of 2500 in the very outdated Intel Atom Z8750 (found in the GPD Win), or the M3-7y30 (in the GPD Win 2) with a score around 3000.
Depending on the price of this board, it might be an okay value. And there are still some other performance advantages with this compared to the Atom Z8750, such as h265 performance (the Atom is very limited).
I have a J5005 powered Intel NUC, and it can handle emulation up to the Gamecube at full speeds, and it only scores a 3DMark score around 800. I have a feeling this board will do very well at emulation.
I wonder how this will do in emulation for playing classic console games and n64, so far the best tiny form factor emulation station setup is the nVidia Shield TV followed by the Pi 4 and 3b. I wonder if this beats performance of both of those for a similar small footprint.
It should run all the emulators, except the heavy ones and middle-weights.
So it will do Atari, Sega, SNES, GBA, DosBox, N64, PS1, PSP, Dreamcast.
It won’t do Switch, PS3, WiiU, and PS2 emulation.
It might do a bit of GameCube and Wii, although a few demanding titles might cause it to choke.
Emulators are typically written for x86 PCs first, and later ported to ARM devices. So there’s almost always going to be better performance and compatibility on x86 than ARM, even if the ARM device is more powerful. So a Small-FormFactor PC (Dell Optiplex) will play emulators better than the Nvidia Shield TV. And something like the Udoo Bolt V8 (or LattePanda Alpha) will run emulation better than the Odroid N2 and Raspberry Pi 4. Performance wise, this thing is about equal with an Intel Core M chipset at lower clockspeed… but its much weaker than say the AMD r3-3400G APU.
AVLinux should run on this board
https://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/
Meh, I prefer the Udoo Bolt V8.
Sure percentage-wise its x2 larger in size, but in person it makes no difference. Although its stupidly expensive, but then we don’t have pricing for the DFI GHF51.