The solderable BGA processor variants consume only between 15 and 28 W of base power, allowing engineers to use them in embedded and edge computing platforms with entirely passive cooling. This eliminates the need for expensive cooling options and improves the robustness and MTBF of system designs.
The lower power consumption is achieved primarily by reducing the number of P-cores while maintaining the number of E-cores. For example, in the Intel Core i7 performance range, mixed workloads benefit from 8 efficient cores across all available variants, and the number of P-cores can be reduced from 6 (12800HE/45 W base power) to 4 (1270PE/28 W base power) or 2 (1265UE/15 W base power). Another energy-saving factor is the reduced number of PCIe lanes (20 instead of 28). Because the selected processors are also suitable for real-time applications, support virtual machines, and include support for Intel TCC and TSN, these new Computer-on-Modules (COMs) from congatec are ideal candidates for consolidating a multitude of different mixed workloads, including AI and/or immersive GUIs, onto a single passively cooled edge computing platform.
The industrial markets targeted by the new high-performance computing modules with Intel Core i7/5/3 and Celeron processors are those where passively cooled computing systems require increased performance. This includes, for example, edge computers and IoT gateways incorporating multiple virtual machines for smart factories and process automation, AI-based quality inspection and industrial vision, real-time collaborative robotics, and autonomous logistics vehicles for warehousing and shipping. Typical outdoor applications include autonomous vehicles and mobile machines, video security and gateway applications in transportation and smart cities, as well as 5G cloudlets and edge devices requiring AI-powered packet inspection.
Offering DDR5 memory support across all core configurations, congatec's new PCIe Gen 4 Compute-on-Modules (COMs) supporting Intel's hybrid architecture accelerate multithreaded applications and streamline background task execution. The integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU delivers impressive graphics performance with up to 96 execution units. In
addition to increased bandwidth and overall improved performance, the new flagship COM HPC Client and COM Express Type 6 modules feature dedicated AI engines compatible with Windows ML, the Intel OpenVINO toolkit, and Chrome Cross ML. Different AI workloads can be seamlessly delegated across the P cores, E cores, and GPU execution units to handle even the most computationally intensive edge AI tasks. Built-in Intel Deep Learning Boost technology leverages the different cores through Vector Neural Network Instructions (VNNI), and the integrated graphics support AI-accelerated DP4a GPU instructions that can even scale to dedicated GPUs. Furthermore, Intel's low-power integrated AI accelerator, the Intel Gaussian & Neural Accelerator 3.0 (Intel GNA 3.0), enables dynamic noise suppression and speech recognition, and can even run while the processor is in low-power states to wake up to voice commands.
Combining these features with support for Real-Time Systems hypervisor technology, as well as OS compatibility with Real-Time Linux and Wind River VxWorks, makes these modules a truly comprehensive ecosystem package for facilitating and accelerating edge computing application development.
The feature set in detail:
The new conga-HPC/cALP COM-HPC Client Size A (95x120mm) modules, as well as the conga-TC670 COM Express Compact Type 6 (95x95mm) modules, are available with six energy-efficient 12th Generation Intel Core processors, as well as a cost-optimized Celeron processor. Both module families support up to 64GB of ultra-fast DDR5 SO-DIMM memory with 4,800 MT/s. Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics with Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, and Intel UHD Graphics with Intel Core i3 and Intel Celeron processors, offer exceptional compatibility with up to four independent displays and resolutions up to 8K. For connecting high-bandwidth peripherals, the COM-HPC modules support up to 16 PCIe Gen 4 lanes and 8 PCIe Gen 3 lanes, and also feature up to two Thunderbolt ports. The COM Express variants feature up to eight PCIe Gen 4 lanes and eight PCIe Gen 3 lanes. Both support an optional, ultra-fast NVMe SSD. Additional storage can be connected via two SATA Gen 3 ports on the COM-HPC and two SATA Gen 3 ports on the COM Express. For networking, the COM-HPC module offers two 2.5 GbE ports, while the COM Express module runs one 2.5 GbE port, both supporting TSN. Audio is provided via SoundWire, HDO, or I2S on the COM-HPC version, and HDA on the COM Express modules. The board's support packages are comprehensive for all major RTOSs, including Real-Time Systems hypervisor support, as well as Linux, Windows, and Android.
The entire range of conga-TC670 COM Express Type 6 Compact (95x95mm) modules based on 12th generation Intel Core processors and the conga-HPC/cALP COM-HPC Client Size A (95x120mm) modules comprises the following 10 different configurations:
More information about the new conga-HPC/cALP COM-HPC Client Size A modules
More information about the conga-TC670 COM Express Type 6 Compact modules
