congatec – a leading vendor of embedded and edge computing technology – introduces the first carrier board and cooling solutions building the foundation of the new ecosystem for the brand new PICMG COM-HPC standard. They are a major milestone for the COM-HPC integration and have been created to accelerate the utilization of congatec’s COM-HPC modules based on the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processors (code name Tiger Lake). The new COM-HPC standard impresses with a broad range of latest high-speed interfaces such as PCIe Gen 4 and USB4, a future proof high-speed connector, and a comprehensive feature set for remote management. The latter, in particular, is of utmost importance for all the emerging broadband connected edge applications, which range from dedicated edge devices to rugged edge clouds and real-time fogs.
“With our COM-HPC and COM Express solutions, we offer two very attractive options for the utilization of the latest Intel Tiger Lake processors. We really want to encourage system engineers to test the new COM-HPC platform with all its new features and benefits. This is most easily done as our APIs are 100% identical on COM-HCP and COM Express, which means engineers can work on both platforms and easily switch from one to the other,” explains Andreas Bergbauer, Product Line Manager at congatec.
Utilizing COM-HPC for the design-in of 11th Gen Intel Core processors provides immediate benefits for developers: PCIe Gen4 compliant connectivity, full USB 4.0 bandwidth, 2.5 GbE, SoundWire, and MIPI-CSI. Those who expect to need more or higher-performance PCIe or Ethernet interfaces with up to 25 GbE should also give preference to COM-HPC. Besides, developers who want to scale their high-performance systems up to edge and fog server performance with only one standard are given a good argument for implementing everything in COM-HPC. Finally, the prospect of being able to use modules that offer more comprehensive remote management functions is yet another reason to buy and try the new evaluation platform for the COM-HPC standard.
The feature set in detail
Designed for evaluation purposes, the ATX compliant carrier board conga-HPC/EVAL-Client for COM-HPC includes all R&D interfaces required for programming, firmware flashing and reset. The new COM-HPC carrier board also incorporates all interfaces specified by the new COM-HPC Client standard and supports the extended temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. The board supports the COM-HPC sizes A, B and C and comes with a variety of LAN data bandwidths, data transfer methods and connectors. It is offered in different flavors to provide maximum flexibility for customers, including Ethernet KR, up to 2x 10 GbE, 2.5 GbE and 1GbE support. The board further features 2 massively performant PCIe Gen4 x16 connectors for latest high-performance extension cards. Over mezzanine cards, the carrier can run even higher-performance interfaces up to 4×25 GbE making this eval platform a perfect fit for massively connected edge devices.
The cooling solution for the brand new COM-HPC modules is available in 3 different variants and fits the entire configurable 12-28W TPD range of the 11th Gen Intel Core processors. The new COM-HPC modules are available in the following processor configurations:
| Processor | Cores/ Threads |
Frequency at 28/15/12W TDP, (Max Turbo) [GHz] | Cache [MB] | Graphics Execution Units | Ext. Temperature range | |||||
| Intel Core i7-1185G7E | 4/8 | 2.8/1.8/1.2 (4.4) | 12 | 96 | – | |||||
| Intel Core i7-1185GRE | 4/8 | 2.8/1.8/1.2 (4.4) | 12 | 96 | yes | |||||
| Intel Core i5-1145G7E | 4/8 | 2.6/1.5/1.1 (4.1) | 8 | 80 | – | |||||
| Intel Core i5-1145GRE | 4/8 | 2.6/1.5/1.1 (4.1) | 8 | 80 | yes | |||||
| Intel Core i3-1115G4E | 2/4 | 3.0/2.2/1.7 (3.9) | 6 | 48 | – | |||||
| Intel Core i3-1115GRE | 2/4 | 3.0/2.2/1.7 (3.9) | 6 | 48 | yes | |||||
| Intel Celeron 6305E | 2/2 | 1.8 (n/a) | 4 | 48 | yes |
The product page of the conga-HPC/cTLU has its home at: https://www.congatec.com/en/products/com-hpc/conga-hpcctlu/
For information about the COM-HPC standard and its entire ecosystem please visit: https://www.congatec.com/com-hpc