Getting in the fast lane towards Gen4
Congatec presents a new COM-HPC starter kit at embedded world 2021 DIGITAL. Ideal for modular system designs using the latest high-speed interface technologies such as PCIe Gen4, USB 4.0 and up to ultra-fast 2x25GbE connectivity, as well as integrated MIPI-CSI vision capabilities, the starter kit is based on the module COM-HPC PICMG conga-HPC/cTLU from congatec, which leverages technology from 11th generation Intel Core processors (codenamed Tiger Lake). This new generation of high-end embedded modules targets system engineers working on the emerging broadband connected edge devices in the industrial IoT. Target markets include medicine, automation, transportation and autonomous mobility, as well as vision-based video surveillance and inspection systems, to name just a few.
“Our new COM-HPC starter kit – which can be ordered with a selection of individually compiled components from our COM-HPC ecosystem – puts engineers in the fast lane towards Gen4 interface technology designs and increased ultra-fast connectivity,” says Martin Danzer, Director of Product Management at congatec. “PCIe Gen4 effectively doubles the performance per lane compared to Gen3, which has massive effects on system designs by allowing engineers to double the number of expansion devices attached. Managing all of this under more complex design rules to achieve signal compliance makes it even more important to have an evaluation and benchmarking platform for your own system designs.”
The starter kit's various Ethernet configuration options range from 8x 1GbE and 2x 2,5GbE switching options, including TSN support, to dual 2x 10GbE connectivity Congatec's comprehensive AI support for Basler's MIPI-CSI connected cameras adds further application readiness to embedded systems connected to Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0. AI and inference acceleration can be achieved with Intel DL Boost running on the CPU's Vector Neural Network instructions (VNNI), or with 8-bit Integer instructions on the GPU (Int8). In this context, the support of the Intel Open Vino ecosystem for AI is attractive, which comes with a library of functions and calls optimized for OpenCV and OpenCL kernels to accelerate deep neural network workloads on multiple platforms and achieve faster results and more. accurate for AI inference. The suite presented at embedded world 2021 DIGITAL is based on the following components of the congatec COM-HPC ecosystem:
ATX compatible motherboard conga-HPC/EVAL-Client
The conga-HPC/EVAL-Client ATX compatible motherboard incorporates all interfaces specified by the new COM-HPC Client standard and supports the extended temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. It comes with two high-performance PCIe Gen4 x16 connectors, plus a variety of LAN data bandwidths, data transfer methods, and connectors, including 2x 10GbE, 2,5GbE, and 1GbE support. Through the mezzanine cards, the carrier can run higher performance interfaces, up to 2x25GbE, making this evaluation platform perfect for massively connected edge devices. The board supports COM-HPC sizes A, B, and C, and includes all the interfaces engineers need for programming, firmware flashing, and rebooting.
New conga-HPC/cTLU COM-HPC Client module
The heart of the introduced starter kit for COM-HPC Client designs, the conga-HPC/cTLU module, is available in different processor configurations. For each of these configurations, three different cooling solutions are available to fit the full configurable 12-28W TPD range of 11th Gen Intel Core processors.
