Typical applications for these new COM-HPC modules can be found in industrial networking technologies such as VPN gateways and firewalls requiring high data speeds of up to 100 GbE and fast buffering, telecommunications and critical distributed infrastructure such as 5G base stations, complex distributed servers in critical Industry 4.0 mixed-use applications, and even radar and sonar applications in security and defense. The advantage offered by the SOM-based solution for these applications lies in its faster and more cost-effective development of a dedicated server design.
“The launch of the new COM-HPC Size E SOM modules with the powerful AMD EPYC 7003 series embedded processors allows us to quickly enter the emerging market of modular distributed servers, which is very important. Remember that standard server designs are geared towards high-volume sales and are offered with very uniform features. Bringing the level of server processing performance to the embedded and distributed server environment creates a need for tailored solutions; SOM modules meet this demand with the processor module and carrier board design principle that has been proven and widely used for several decades,” explains Dirk Finstel, Associate Vice President of Embedded IoT and CTO in Europe at Advantech.
“For many years we have observed the need for tailored solutions in the embedded computing market. The high efficiency offered by combining modules and designs with custom carrier boards is the main reason for the enormous success of Computer-on-Modules (COMs). COMs are the most widely used boards in embedded computing. Thanks to the COM-HPC SOM specification, this design principle is now also available with a wide range of processors, from entry-level to the latest AMD EPYC Embedded 7003 processors,” says PICMG President Jess Isquith, to emphasize the importance of the new SOM specification, in whose definition Advantech participated as a member of the PICMG COM-HPC subcommittee.
Along with its embedded processing capacity of up to 64 cores and multiple generic PCIe Gen 4 lanes, Advantech's new SOM-E780 module also stands out for its high energy efficiency, enabling x86 server engineers to deliver exceptional performance, reduce energy costs, and even utilize passive cooling solutions. Another advantage is its single-socket design, which helps minimize licensing costs compared to dual-socket server designs. Built on AMD 'Zen 3' microarchitecture cores and the AMD Infinity architecture, the AMD EPYC 7003 series processors provide a comprehensive feature set across the entire stack, featuring the industry's highest number of I/O lanes, 7nm x86 CPU technology, and integrated security. They also offer up to 32MB of L3 cache, 4-6-8 channels of interleaved memory to optimize performance in various DIMM configurations, and synchronized clocks between the frame and memory; technologies that come together to deliver the best level of performance on the market.
EPYC processors incorporate AMD Infinity Guard, a suite of advanced security features embedded in the silicon and designed to defend against internal and external threats. AMD Infinity Guard includes SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization) to help safeguard VM privacy and integrity, SEV-SNP (Secure Nested Paging) to provide robust memory integrity protection, SME (Secure Memory Encryption) to enhance protection against attacks on main memory, and AMD Shadow Stack for hardware-applied stack protection against malware attacks.
The
new SOM-E780 COM-HPC modules for E-Size servers from Advantech integrate the most advanced AMD EPYC 7003 Embedded server CPUs and have a long-term availability expected for at least 5 years. Available in 5 different versions, the new modules target applications requiring massive parallel processing with up to 64 powerful AMD 'Zen 3' cores for up to 128 threads. They support up to 512GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200 MT/s across 4 DIMM sockets to accelerate server designs that require high memory bandwidth, multiple memory-intensive workloads, and virtual machine deployments. The impressive availability of 79 PCIe Gen 4 lanes enables a new class of modular designs with high-performance distributed servers that integrate a wide range of dedicated controllers, accelerator cards, and NVMe storage media with the possibility of high-speed I/O communications and networking up to 100 Gbps Ethernet.
For real-time networking, the modules also offer one 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port. Other interfaces include four USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, as well as SPI Bus, 12-bit GPIO, and two COM ports. Conventional hard drives and SSDs can be connected via two SATA 3.0 interfaces. Software compatibility includes Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux. To enhance reliability, accessibility, and functionality, the new COM-HPC SOMs incorporate TPM and Advantech's proven remote management and monitoring solution, iManager, which includes IPMI, an embedded software API, and WISE-DeviceOn.
