As a part of its CES 2021 bulletins, Intel formally unveiled plenty of NUCs based mostly on their Tiger Lake SoCs. Intel’s preliminary NUCs had been all based mostly on 100mm x 100mm (4in x 4in) boards, kickstarting the UCFF craze that contributed to revitalizing the PC market. Over the previous few years, we have now seen Intel broaden the NUC to embody a number of different form-factors, whereas protecting compactness in thoughts:
- Performance: The unique 4×4 UCFF models
- Pro: 4×4 UCFF models with enlargement assist and vPro capabilities
- Compute Elements: Add-in Card kind issue with service boards for system design
- Extreme: Compute Elements utilizing a 45W TDP processor with a base board internet hosting as much as three PCIe enlargement slots (inclusive of a M.2 22110 NVMe slot) and a 5L chassis enabling compact gaming and workstation PCs
- Rugged: NUCs designed for operation in industrial and factory-floor kind environments, sporting processors based mostly on the Atom microarchitecture
- Essential: 4×4 NUCs sporting processors based mostly on the Atom microarchitecture
- Laptop Kit: Reference design / whitebook fashions for OEMs to carry notebooks to market sooner
- Enthusiast: Compact PCs with a 5.5in. x 8in. motherboard sporting a discrete GPU (both soldered or in-package)
The Panther Canyon NUCs are the Tiger Lake-based “Performance-class” models, with eleven completely different SKUs based mostly on three completely different boards.
All the fashions function the Tiger Lake processors (Core i7-1165G7, Core i5-1135G7, or the Core i3-1115G4) with a TDP of 28W. The Okay and H kits are the standard ones we have now seen in earlier generations – the latter has assist for the set up of a 2.5″ drive. Panther Canyon additionally has a Q SKU that provides a wi-fi charging lid (as much as 15W) on prime of the H chassis. The specs are summarized within the desk beneath.
| Intel Panther Canyon NUC (Tiger Lake-U) Lineup | ||||
| Model | NUC11PA{Okay/H/Q}i3 | NUC11PA{Okay/H/Q}i5 | NUC11PA{Okay/H/Q}i7 | |
| CPU | Intel Core i3-1115G4 2C/4T 1.7 – 4.1 GHz (3.Zero GHz) 12 – 28 W (28W) |
Intel Core i5-1135G7 4C/8T 0.9 – 4.2 GHz (2.Four GHz) 12 – 28 W (28W) |
Intel Core i7-1165G7 4C/8T 1.2 – 4.7 GHz (2.eight GHz) 12 – 28 W (28W) |
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| GPU | Intel® UHD Graphics for 11th Gen Intel® Processors (48EU) @ 1.25 GHz | Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (80EU) @ 1.Three GHz | Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (96EU) @ 1.Three GHz | |
| DRAM | Two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots Up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 in dual-channel mode |
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| Motherboard | 4.13″ x 4.16″ UCFF | |||
| Storage | SSD | 1x M.2-2280 (PCIe 4.Zero x4 (CPU-direct) or SATA III) | ||
| DFF | 1 × SATA III Port (for two.5″ drive) | |||
| Card Slots | Full-sized SDXC UHS-II | |||
| Wireless | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 2×2 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1 module |
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| Ethernet | 1 × 2.5 GbE port (Intel I225-V) | |||
| USB | Front | 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1 x Thunderbolt 3 Type-C |
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| Rear | 2 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1 × Thunderbolt 3 |
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| Display Outputs | 1 × HDMI 2.0b 1 x mini-DP 1.4a 2 × DisplayPort 1.4 (utilizing Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports) |
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| Audio | 1 × 3.5mm audio jack (Realtek) | |||
| PSU | External (90W) | External (120W) | ||
| Dimensions | Length: 117 mm Width: 112 mm Height: 38mm (Okay), 51mm (H), 56mm (Q) |
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| MSRP | ? | ? | ? | |
Intel’s technical product specs present extra particulars on the I/Os. We see the entrance and rear Thunderbolt ports (curiously, marketed as Thunderbolt Three as a substitute of Thunderbolt 4) are enabled instantly from the TGL-U processor. Two show outputs (DP 1.4a) are additionally routed by way of these Thunderbolt ports throughout the processor itself.
Interestingly, a protocol converter remains to be wanted on the board to transform the DP 1.4a show output to HDMI 2.0b. There is a PCIe 4.Zero x4 lanes set for attaching a NVMe SSD. The high-speed I/O lanes are…
