Gigabyte Launches Gemini Lake SoC Motherboards

The latest generation of Intel Celeron SoC processors codename “Gemini Lake” are here. Gigabyte even has a new motherboard sporting the new SoC built-in called the J4005N D2P. It is a mini-ITX solution built on a glass fabric PCB with Gigabyte ‘Ultra Durable’ components. Gemini Lake introduces several efficiency improvements over Apollo Lake, and now includes VP9 hardware decoding. Apollo Lake previously introduced 4K HEVC support and it continues on Gemini Lake. This makes it an ideal platform as a low-power HTPC.

Mini-ITX Motherboard with Expansion Options

“Following the announcement of the newest Intel Pentium Silver and Celeron Processors, GIGABYTE developed a series of motherboards that truly reflects our excellent ability to combine the best of motherboard technology with Intel processor architecture,” GIGABYTE stated.

The SoC itself does not generate much heat, which is why it has passive cooling onboard. It has room for up to two DDR4 UDIMM modules (supports 2400MHz) and even has a PCIe x16 expansion slot. In terms of storage, it has a PCIe Gen2 x2 M.2 slot which also supports SATA M.2 drives. Regular SATA ports are also available, a pair of them in fact onboard.

Expect more Gigabyte models to come out with the N or J designation. To separate it from previous generation chipsets, the naming scheme follows the 4th gen standard. Hence, it will start with a J4 or N4 naming scheme, rather than J3 (Apollo Lake) or N3  (Braswell).