Atom Avoton/Rangeley power draw when cores switched off via BIOS

[PBach2]

I'm interested in a figure of how much the power draw of, say, an Intel Atom http://ark.intel.com/products/77988 C2758 8 core CPU gets reduced iff half of its cores get switched off in the BIOS. I guess the CPU will still draw more than 50%, but will there be any reduction at all?

The reasons why I ask are threefold:

1. The availability of general purpose boards with Intel Atom C2000 CPUs with 2 or 4 cores on the market seems to be significantly below that of the top models - what to do if I do not need their full power? Buy a special purpose board with just the right CPU or reduce the number of cores in the BIOS?

2. As these CPUs are soldered on the board there is no easy upgrade path if I currently do only need 2 or 4 cores, but in the future will need 8. If I could significantly save energy by switching off cores I do not need temporarily, this was a nice solution.

3. If I correctly understand the Avoton / Rangeley chips, then even those with 2 or 4 working cores bear 8 cores in total - this suggests that I could equally well turn, say, an Intel Atom http://ark.intel.com/products/77987 C2750 into an Intel Atom http://ark.intel.com/products/77982 C2550 just by adjusting BIOS settings.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi bachlipp,

Processors with higher amount of Cores active, save more energy and time than disabling some of the Cores. The speed of each Core changes according to the system requirements and number of applications running at the same time.

The power consumption is variable from 6 to 20W.

More details on the link below.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-atom-c2000-processor-family-technical-overview Intel® Atom® Processor C2000 Product Family Technical Overview | Intel® Developer Zone

Regards,

Mike C