Deggendorf, Germany, 30 April 2020 * * * congatec – a leading vendor of embedded computing technology – introduces its new conga-TR4 COM Express Type 6 module with AMD Ryzen™ Embedded V1000 Series processors for the industrial temperature range from 40°C to +85°C. It is available with optional burn-in & cold-soak stress screening service for highest reliability. The most demanding graphics and compute workloads benefit from the modules’ 4 cores, 8 threads and 8 GPU compute units delivering the well-reputed massive processing throughput of AMD’s Zen microarchitecture in an ultra-rugged shape. The TDP is scalable from 12W to 25W enabling truly immersive 4k UHD system designs with passive cooling only. Typical applications for the new industrial-grade COM Express modules can be found in rugged edge computing with embedded vision and artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, railcars and wagons, outdoor equipment in the oil and gas industries, mobile ambulance equipment, broadcasting vans, or in security and video surveillance, as well as base station equipment for 5G, to name just a few.

The maximum performance of the new conga-TR4 COM Express Type 6 module depends on the environmental conditions and is specified with 1.6 GHz to 2.8 GHz turbo boost in the sub-zero temperature range, and 2.0 GHz to a maximum of 3.6 GHz in the positive temperature range. The impressive performance of the ultra-rugged conga-TR4 Computer-on-Modules has been made available in a real-time capable design and also includes real-time hypervisor support by Real-Time Systems for virtual machine deployments and workload consolidation in edge computing scenarios.

The feature set in detail

The new conga-TR4 high-performance module with COM Express Type 6 pinout is based on the latest AMD Ryzen™ Embedded V1404I multi-core processor for the industrial temperature range. It supports up to 32GB energy-efficient and fast dual-channel DDR4 memory with up to 2400 MT/s and optional ECC for maximum data security. The integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega graphics with 8 compute units marks the cutting edge of embedded graphics. It supports up to four independent displays with up to 4k UHD resolution and 10-bit HDR, as well as DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.4 for 3D graphics. The integrated video engine enables hardware-accelerated streaming of HEVC (H.265) video in both directions. Thanks to HSA and OpenCL 2.0 support, deep learning workloads can be assigned to the GPU. In safety-critical applications, the integrated AMD Secure Processor helps with hardware-accelerated RSA, SHA, and AES encryption and decryption.

The new conga-TR4 allows a complete USB-C implementation on the carrier board including USB 3.1 Gen 2 with 10 Gbit/s, Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4, for example to connect external touchscreens with a single cable. Further performance-oriented interfaces include 1x PEG 3.0 x8, 4x PCIe Gen 3 and 4x PCIe Gen 2, 3x USB 3.1 Gen 2, 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 8x USB 2.0, 2x SATA Gen 3, and 1x Gbit Ethernet. I/Os for SD, SPI, LPC, I²C as well as 2x legacy UART from the CPU and High Definition Audio round off the range of interfaces. The supported operating systems include Linux, Yocto 2.0 and Microsoft Windows 10, or optionally Windows 7.

Deggendorf, Germany, 28 May 2020 * * * congatec – a leading vendor of embedded computer technology – announces its brand new conga-SMC1/SMARC-x86 3.5-inch carrier board. The new size-optimized SMARC 2.1 carrier board in 3.5-inch form factor is application-ready and off-the-shelf deployable in small to mid sized series in combination with any congatec SMARC Computer-on-Module available to date. Tailored to make 3.5-inch SBC designs modular, it is optimized for the Gen 5 Intel Atom®, Celeron® and Pentium® processors (codenamed Apollo Lake) as well as future low power x86 generations. Its slot for SMARC 2.1 processor modules provides processor socket independent scalability, making OEM solutions highly flexible and long term available. With fewer layers, the PCB design of the 3.5-inch carrier is less complex and less expensive compared to a full-custom design. Another benefit of the carrier board is the capability to rapidly implement customizations, which ensures high custom design efficiency: Adding or deleting specific interfaces is fairly fast for best time to market, comparatively simple, cost efficient and offered from lot sizes of around 500 boards per year. For ultra-efficient high volume projects, fusion of the congatec COM/carrier combo is an attractive option. SMARC module customers can even get free access to the carrier board schematics as support for own carrier board designs.

“Computer-on-Modules have the capacity to bring modularity to the entire embedded, industrial and IoT computing world. This size-optimized SMARC 2.1 carrier board in 3.5-inch form factor is just the starting point of our design roadmap to make embedded computing even more modular. Together with our carrier board design partners in various sectors, congatec can offer tremendous benefits to any standard embedded form factor, with the potential to disrupt established vendors in markets such as embedded motherboards and SBCs as well as modular edge server and backend systems such as CompactPCI Serial, PXI or VME/VPX,” explains Martin Danzer, Director Product Management at congatec.

The new conga-SMC1/SMARC-x86 excels with its audio codec and USB-C implementation that is specifically optimized for Intel Atom processor technology. It is furthermore also optimized for MIPI cameras, which can now be connected directly and without any additional hardware. Thanks to two MIPI-CSI 2.0 connectors, it is even possible to develop systems that provide three-dimensional vision and can therefore also be used for situational awareness in autonomous vehicles. Combined with processor-integrated support for artificial intelligence and neural networks, this commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform offers everything developers need for smart vision systems. Comprehensive software support with precompiled binaries completes the new COTS offering.

The feature set in detail
The new size-optimized conga-SMC1/SMARC-x86 SMARC 2.1 carrier board in 3.5-inch form factor is scalable across the entire Intel Apollo Lake processor range, from Intel Atom® (E3950, E3940 and E3930) to Celeron® (N3350) and Pentium® (N4200) processors. On a footprint measuring just 146 x 102 mm, the conga-SMC1/SMARC-x86 offers dual GbE, 5x USB and USB hub support as well as SATA 3 for external hard drives or SSDs. For custom expansions, the board offers a miniPCIe slot as well as an M.2 Type E E2230 slot with I2S, PCIe and USB, and an M.2 Type B B2242/2280 with 2x PCIe and 1x USB. An integrated MicroSim slot for IoT connection is also provided, next to specific embedded interfaces such as 4x UART, 2x CAN, 8x GPIO, I2C and SPI. Displays can be connected via HDMI, LVDS/eDP/DP and MIPI-DSI. The board further offers two MIPI-CSI inputs for camera connection. Sound is implemented via an audio jack. The board comes with full Windows and RTS hypervisor support. For the open source community, congatec also offers precompiled binaries with a suitably configured bootloader, appropriately compiled Linux, Yocto and Android images, plus all required drivers that are available to congatec customers on GitHub. The carrier boards are available in the following SMARC Computer-on-Module configurations:

Deggendorf, Germany, 16 June 2020 * * * congatec – a leading vendor of embedded computing technology – presents its brand new workload consolidation kit for vision based situational awareness that is qualified by Intel as Intel® IoT RFP (Ready For Production) Kit. Based on a COM Express Type 6 module equipped with Intel® Xeon® E2 processor, the RFP kit has three virtual machines (VMs) built on Real-Time Systems’ hypervisor technology for workload consolidation in vision applications. One VM runs a vision based AI application on the basis of Intel® OpenVino® software for situational awareness, the second VM is real-time capable and runs deterministic control software, and the third VM operates a IIoT/Industry 4.0 gateway. The congatec kit designed in cooperation with Intel® and Real-Time Systems targets the next generation of vision based collaborative robotics, automation controls and autonomous vehicles that have to tackle multiple tasks in parallel, including situational awareness utilizing deep learning based AI algorithms.

The Real-Time Systems based virtual machines make it possible to consolidate the different tasks on a single edge computing platform, which ultimately saves costs. The Intel® OpenVino® software delivers the appropriate artificial intelligence for situational awareness. OEMs just need to load their control to the real-time VM and they are ready to enrich their real-time control with data from the situational awareness VM and to communicate in real-time with IIoT/Industry 4.0 counterparts to enable tactile internet controls.

“Workload consolidation demand is rapidly increasing in vision based situational awareness applications: Machine controls, collaborative robotics and autonomous vehicles need virtualization, as OEMs don’t want to assign the different control, vision and networking tasks to multiple dedicated systems,” explains Martin Danzer, Director Product Management at congatec.

The workload consolidation RFP kit unpacked
congatec’s ‘Intel® IoT RFP Kit’ for workload consolidation in vision based situational awareness applications includes a COM Express Type 6 module based platform with Intel® Xeon® E2 processor, a Basler vision camera, a pendulum controlled by a demo controller, and an Intel® Arria® 10 FPGA card from REFLEX CES. The platform has three pre-installed application ready VMs on the basis of Real-Time Systems’ hypervisor technology. One VM analyses videos on the basis of Intel® OpenVino® software, the second VM runs real-time Linux to control the balance of an inverted pendulum in real-time. The third partition hosts a gateway for IIoT/Industry 4.0 connectivity. More information about the new Intel® IoT RFP Kit for workload consolidation is available at:
https://marketplace.intel.com/s/offering/a5b3b000000ThjQAAS/realtime-workload-consolidation-starter-set

https://www.congatec.com/en/congatec/press-releases/article/congatec-presents-intelr-iot-rfp-kit-fo