HP t520: Hardware 

• Hardware
• Firmware
• Linux

I do not have a t520 as I haven't yet found one within my price range (i.e. not-a-lot). As I write this the cheapest one I can see on ebay.co.uk is £90. However Jan has one and supplied some of the information and the photographs included here. My thanks to Jan for that.

Specifications

Processor
Type    Speed    Chipset	AMD GX-212JC (dual core) 1.2GHz Integrated
Memory
Flash    RAM	8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB 2GB/4GB/8GB (max 8GB)
Video
Chip    Max resolution	Radeon R2E 2560 x 1600 (Display Port)
Ports
Network    USB    Serial    Parallel    PS/2    Video	10/100/1000 4 x USB2.0, 2 x USB3.0 0 0 0 Display Port 1.2 & VGA
Power
Power    Plug    Off    Idle    Running	19.5V 3.33A (label) 7.4mm/5mm Coax with central pin 0.5W ~6W 10W
Dimensions
H x W x D (mm)	200 x 45.1 x 200 (Excluding Stand)

The embedded operating system is one of:

• HP Smart Zero Core (32-bit)
• HP ThinPro (32-bit)
• Windows Embedded 8 Standard (64-bit)
• Windows Embedded Standard 7P (64-bit)
• Windows Embedded Standard 7E (32-bit)
• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise (64-bit)

depending on the exact model.

Power Supply

The unit requires a 19.5V DC supply with a coax connector with a central pin. The outer sleeve of the connector would appear to be 7.4mm/5mm. There appear to plenty for sale on eBay. The standard PSU is rated at 19.5V 3.33A.

[July 2018] My thanks to

Marcus for providing the power measurements in the summary table above.

CPU

The t520 is based on an AMD System-On-a-Chip (SOC) processor with a TDP of 6W. It has a host of onboard features. The CPU is a dual core 64-bit processor and is supposed to run between 1GHz and 1.4GHz in 100MHz steps. Jan found that with Windows 7 embedded it seemed to run at 1.4GHz all the time.

From the linux cpuinfo data:

vendor_id	:	AuthenticAMD
cpu family	:	22
model	:	48
model name	:	AMD GX-212JC SOC with Radeon(TM) R2E Graphics
stepping	:	1
flags	:	fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good acc_power nonstop_tsc extd_apicid aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt topoext perfctr_nb bpext ptsc perfctr_l2 cpb hw_pstate vmmcall bmi1 xsaveopt arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold overflow_recov

PCI

From the linux lspci command:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1566
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Mullins [Radeon R1E/R2E Graphics] (rev 01)
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini HDMI/DP Audio
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 156b
00:02.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Functions 5:1
00:08.0 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1537
00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 11)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 42)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller (rev 02)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 11)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1580
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1581
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1582
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1583
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1584
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 1585
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)

Expansion

Click on the photo for a larger version.

Flash: The Flash memory is easily replaceable. It's an SSD to the M.2 standard. It's the white label towards the top left in the photograph. NB There are no standard SATA sockets on the board.

RAM: The RAM is a standard 204-pin DDR3 SODIMM. An HP document lists the following details for the SODIMM:

• industry-standard 204-pin
• unbuffered non-ECC PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 MHz-compliant or non-ECC PC3L-12800 DDR3L-1600 MHz-compliant
• DDR3-SDRAM SODIMM
  • 1.35 volt DDR3L-SDRAM (preferred)
  • 1.5 volt DDR3-SDRAM
• support CAS latency 9 DDR3 1333 MHz (9-9-9 timing)

It goes on to add that the thin client supports the following:

• 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB non-ECC memory technologies
• single-sided and double-sided SODIMMS
• SODIMMs constructed with x8 and x16 devices; SODIMMs constructed with x4 SDRAM are not supported

Mini PCI-E: The t520 has a Mini-PCIe 1x Slot. Some models may have a Broadcom or Intel WLAN card fitted.

USB: There are two USB3.0 sockets on the front panel and four USB2.0 sockets on the rear panel.

Display: There are two dual-mode DisplayPort 1.2 ports and a VGA socket on the rear panel. The t520 supports two independent displays. The hardware manual reads:

The devices connected at boot up or subsequently disconnected determine which video ports are enabled and which is disabled.

• If a VGA device is connected at boot up, then only one DisplayPort port may be used. If the VGA device is subsequently disconnected, then both DisplayPort ports are enabled.
• If a VGA device and one DisplayPort device are connected at boot up, then the other DisplayPort port is disabled. If the VGA device is subsequently disconnected, then that DisplayPort port is enabled.
• If two DisplayPort devices are connected at boot up, then the VGA port is disabled. If one or both DisplayPort devices are subsequently disconnected, the VGA port is enabled.

 

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Any comments? email me. Added February 2017    Last update July 2018