Embedded

Equipped with an LGA1700 socket for the 12th generation Intel Core i9 / i7 / i5 / i3 processors (code named Alder Lake-S), the IBM540 is the latest industrial ATX motherboard from Axiomtek.

It has quad displays and dual GPU expansion for AIoT applications. The IMB540 is built with the Intel R680E chipset and the Alder Lake-S CPU options. It also has four DDR4-3200 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered long-DIMM slots with a total capacity of 128Gbyte. There are five PCIe slots, two 4.0 x16 slots and three x4 slots for GPU, AI acceleration, frame grabber, NIC and motion control card configurations. 

The networking interfaces consist of a 2.5GbE LAN port with time-sensitive networking (TSN), a GbE LAN port, as well as a PCIe mini card slot with SIM slot for Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / LTE connectivity. The Intel Iris Xe Graphics allows for support of up to four independent displays via HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and DisplayPort++.

For storage, there are four SATA 3.0 ports with integrated RAID 0 / 1 / 5 / 10 and additional storage is available via an M.2 Key M 2280 slot with PCIe x4 signal for NVMe SSD. The USB interface support includes four USB 3.2 Gen2, four USB 3.2 Gen1 and five USB 2.0 ports. The board is further equipped with four RS-232, two RS-232 / -422 /- 485, eight-channel programmable digital I/O, one HD codec audio, one SMBus, and one PS/2 keyboard and mouse. 

The industrial ATX motherboard can withstand a wide operating temperature range from 0 to 60 degrees C. It also supports onboard Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM) to provide hardware-based data protection. Operating systems are Windows 10 and Linux.

The IMB540 drives AI computing performance and includes sufficient I/O, high-speed interfaces, multi-display connection capability and flexible expansion slots for medical imaging, video surveillance, computer vision and data analysis, said Kasper Tsai, the product manager of the AIoT team at Axiomtek. “Moreover, we have the capability to assist with any customer’s industrial integration requirements and achieve fast time to market,” he added.

http://www.axiomtek.com 

For high performance embedded computing (HPEC) the Advantech SQF 930 and SQF ER-1 are claimed to have industrial heat dissipation capabilities suitable for stable operation in edge computing. According to Advantech, they maximise system efficiency while accommodating the harsh conditions and wide temperatures found in outdoor or industrial usage scenarios.

The Advantech SQF 930 and ER-1 series are designed with PCIe Gen. 4 specifications, delivering double data streaming performance compared to Gen. 3 versions. They are also available in M.2 2280 and U.2 (SFF-8639) sizes. 

SQFlash provides different types of general, read-intensive, and mixed-use options that enable edge storage devices to keep up with numerous, real time streaming data sources. In addition, the SQF 930 and ER-1 series support three drive writes per day (DWPD) and one DWPD levels to meet different industrial requirements. These also support a wide temperature range (-40 to +85 degrees C) for mission critical applications. In addition, the ER-1 series is built with low power consumption credentials that meet high power and low carbon expectations, said Advantech. 

As is the case with the proliferation of the IoT, AI technology development has increased power consumption and heat at the edge. In response, Advantech has engineered the SQF 930 and ER-1 to adopt thermal glue with mechanical flexibility to avoid the risk of physical damage to SSD components during sudden temperature changes. The combination of thermal throttling design and real-time I/O adjustment can effectively balance temperature and performance, reported Advantech. 

In addition, the adoption of IoT has led to unprecedented inter-connectivity and increased security concerns. The SQF 930 and ER-1 meet these challenges by protecting data stored on the SQFlash SSD with support for real-time monitoring and security at the SSD firmware level. 

Advantech’s SQF 930/ER-1 PCIe Gen. 4 solutions will be available from October 2022. 

Advantech’s promotes IoT hardware and software with the Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS core. The company is also working with business partners to co-create business ecosystems.

http://www.advantech.eu

VPX carriers introduced by Acromag route power and bus signals to two plug-in XMC mezzanine modules with a 16-lane Gen 3 PCIe interface. The VPX4840 and VPX4850 enable a range of FPGA, GPU, I/O and CPU combinations when interfacing XMC modules to a VPX computer system. 

The VPX4840 and VPX4850 feature two XMC slots with support for front or rear panel I/O. They are available with VITA 42, VITA 61, or VITA 88 connectors to route power and interface bus signals to the plug-in mezzanine modules. Both models support a choice of direct PCIe connection to the VPX backplane via the data or expansion plane. 

The XMC sites have a 16-lane PCIe bus Gen A3 interface enabling rapid data throughput. By inserting XMC mezzanine modules on the carrier, including XMC processor (prXMC) modules, developers can leverage hundreds of available function modules currently unavailable in a VPX platform, said Acromag. 

“With two XMC sites, system integrators can combine FPGA, GPU, I/O, avionics, communication, and even prXMC modules to create custom computing boards in a single slot” said Robert Greenfield, Acromag’s bsiness development manager.

Air-cooled models with a 0 to +55 degrees C temperature range, versions with extended temperature ranges or conduction cooling support are also available.

Designed and manufactured in the USA the carriers are suitable for high-performance aerospace, defence, scientific research and industrial systems requiring high-speed I/O. 

Founded in 1957, Acromag designs and manufactures hi-tech industrial electronics. The international corporation’s headquarters are near Detroit, Michigan and the company has a global network of sales representatives and distributors. 

Acromag offers embedded computing including general purpose I/O boards, single-board computers, FPGA modules, embedded computers, COM Express products, mezzanine modules, wiring accessories, and software. Industries served include military, aerospace, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and scientific research laboratories.

http://www.acromag.com

System on modules (SoMs) that support Intel Agilex FPGA SoCs have been released by iWave. The iW-RainboW-G43 and iW-RainboW-G51 Agilex SoC based SoMs are designed for data centre, networking and edge applications which can exploit the SoCs customised acceleration and connectivity characteristics.

According to iWave, they provide an improvement in performance with 40 per cent lower power consumption while delivering two times the fabric performance per Watt. The SoCs integrate the Arm Cortex A53 Core application processor.

The SoMs are available in a 120 x 90mm form factor and are claimed to be the first SoMs to be pin compatible for the majority of the F-Series and the I-Series. 

The Agilex SoM has up to 2.7M programmable logic elements for processing large amounts of, or complex, data algorithms. The SoM supports primary interface and components, such as Gigabit Ethernet, USB2.0 port, JTAG, UART, onboard DDR4 and eMMC flash for storage, high-speed transceivers.

Complementing the Agilex SoC on-chip resources, the SoM provides up to 64 FGT transceiver channels (up to 32G NRZ / 58G PAM4), up to eight FHT transceiver channels (up to 58G NRZ / 116G PAM4), on SoM PTP and SyncE network synchronisers, SmartVID to adjust voltage as per the temperature and performance requirements and up to 138 LVDS/276 SE I/Os.

To enable quick prototyping and speed up development, iWave supports customers by providing reference designs in the form of development kits and software packages. 

http://www.iwavesystems.com