Kontron Introduces Tiger Lake 3U VPX Computer Blade and COM Express Type 6 Module

Intel launched several new embedded processors last month including the brand new Elkhart Lake family and some additional Tiger Lake UP3 processors designed for the IoT edge market.

There’ve been several products announced with the new processors, but here are more with Kontron introducing two new Tiger Lake embedded hardware with COMe-cTL6 COM Express Compact Type 6 module and VX3060 3U VPX computer blade.

As shown in the collage above, a 3.5-inch SBC is also in the works, but while we do not have the full details yet, the company expect the board to comes with SATA 3.0, M.2 socket, 2.5 GbE LAN, as well as four DP channels driving up to four independent 4Kp60 displays.

VX3060 3U VPX computer blade

Key features for both “3E” and “XG” variants:

• SoC – Intel quad-core Tiger Lake UP3 processor up to 2.5 GHz with up to 96EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics  – 12 to 28 W configurable TDP
• System Memory – 16 GByte DDR4 Memory with ECC
• Storage- M.2 2245 SATA top socket, dual SATA III ports on P1
• Video Output – Dual head DisplayPort output
• Networking
  • VX3060-RC4F-XG model – 1x 2.5Gbps Ethernet port with TSN, 2x 10G/25G on TR3-P1
  • VX3060-RC4F-3E model – 2 x 2.5Gps Ethernet ports with TSN, 1x Gigabit Ethernet
• USB
  • VX3060-RC4F-XG model – Dual USB-C on P1 and P2
  • VX3060-RC4F-3E model – USB-C on P1, Dual USB3 on P2
• Expansion – Dual PCIe x4 on P1, PCIe x1 on p2
• Form Factor – 3U Single Slot VPX SBC compatible with VITA65 OpenVPX Profiles SLT3-PAY-2F2U-14.2.3, SLT3-PAY-1F1F2U-14.2.4, SLT3-PAY-1F1U-14.2.10
• Temperature Range – -40 °C to +85 °C

The blades are designed for computer vision, graphics, and image processing, artificial intelligence, and digital signal processing. and Kontron offers 15-year availability.  The company provides a Linux BSP, and Fedora Live USB image for quick evaluation and benchmarking.

If you’ve never heard about VPX or OpenVPX that probably because those types of boards are used for military and aerospace applications. The Linux BSP does offer features that appear to be specific to VPX requirements:

• cpldtool command-line tool to control the CPLD that manages power supplies control and monitoring, SOC out-of-band i2c signals, RESET, LEDs, GPIO etc…
• Power-On Built-in-Test (PBIT) support
• Continous Built-in-Test (CBIT) Linux service that provides a continuous flow of
  health data in XML format with an interactive dashboard accessible with any browser.

More details can be found on the product page.

COME-CTL6 (E2) COM Express Compact Type 6

Key features and specifications:

• SoC (one or the other)
  • Intel Core i7-1185G7E quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 2.8/4.4 GHz with 12MB cache, Intel Iris Xe graphics with 96x EU; 12W to 28W TDP
  • Intel Core i5-1145G7E quad-core/octa-thread processor with 8MB cache, Intel Iris Xe graphics with 80x EU; 12W to 28W TDP
  • Intel Core  i3-1115G4E dual-core/quad-thread processor with 6MB, Intel UHD graphics with 48EU; 12W to 28W TDP
  • Intel Core i7-1185GRE quad-core/octa-thread processor with 12MB cache, Intel Iris Xe graphics with 96x EU, IBECC and TSN support; 12W to 28W TDP
  • Intel Core i5-1145GRE quad-core/octa-thread processor with 8MB cache, Intel Iris Xe graphics with 80x EU, IBECC and TSN support; 12W to 28W TDP
  • Intel Core  i3-1115GRE dual-core/quad-thread processor with 6MB, Intel UHD graphics with 48EU, TSN support; 12W to 28W TDP
• System Memory – 1x DDR4 SO-DIMM up to 32 GB, 2nd channel DDR4 memory down up to 16 GB for a total of up to 48 GB RAM
• Storage – Up to 1 TB NVMe SSD onboard
• Networking – Intel I225LM/I225IT 2.5Gbps Ethernet controller with TSN support
• 2x 220-pin COM Express connectors
  • Storage – 2x SATA 6 Gbps
  • Display Interfaces – Up to 3x DP++, VGA, dual-channel 18-/24-bit LVDS
  • Audio – High Definition Audio interface
  • Networking – 2x 2.5GbE
  • USB – 4x USB 3.1 (incl. USB 2.0) + 4x USB 2.0
  • Serial – 2x serial interface (RX/TX only)
  • PCI Express
    • 5x PCIe 3.0 (On request: 6x without Ethernet, up to 8x without Ethernet & SATA)
    • 1×4 PCIe 4.0 on PEG Lanes #0-3
  • Low-speed interfaces – (G)SPI, LPC, SMB, I2C
• HW Security – TPM 2.0
• Misc – Watchdog, RTC, AMI Aptio V BIOS,
• Power Supply – 8.5 V – 20 V wide-range, single-supply power; ACPI 6.0 power management
• Dimensions – 95 x 95 mm (COM Express Compact Type 6)
• Temperature Range
  • Commercial: 0 °C to +60 °C operating, -30 °C to +85 °C non-operating
  • Extended: -25 °C to +75 °C operating, -30 °C to +85 °C non-operating
  • Industrial: -40 °C to +85 °C operating, -40 °C to +85 °C non-operating
• Humidity- 93 % relative Humidity at 40 °C, non-condensing (according to IEC 60068-2-78)

I think it’s the first Tiger Lake module I’ve covered that comes with 2.5GbE support, and it’s probably the first time I’ve seen a board or module with a mixture of soldered-down RAM and SO-DIMM socket.

Kontron offers support for Windows 10, Linux, and VxWorks operating systems for the computer-on-module, and provides commercial and industrial-grade carrier board for the module, as well as various active and passive cooling solutions.

Visit the product page to find more information including a datasheet and user manual.

Via LinuxGizmos

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