Adlink’s Linux-ready “DLAP-8000” robotics controller offers a 9th Gen CPU, 4x swappable SATA, 2x PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x8, and PCIe x4. The system will be used in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC).

Adlink announced that its “preliminary” DLAP-8000 Series robotics controller and “industrial GPU workstation” is being used by competitors in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC). The 9th Gen Coffee Lake based system is loaded with PCIe slots for performing rapid deep learning processing on up to Quadro RTX 8000 graphics cards (see farther below).

Dallara IL-15 race car for Indy Autonomous Challenge
(click image to enlarge)

The two-year, $1.5 million IAC prize competition brings together 39 university backed teams from around the world to test the limits of autonomous vehicle performance at speeds of up to 200 mph. Each team will program modified Dallara IL-15 racecars and compete in the world’s first autonomous head-to-head, high-speed race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to be held Oct. 23, 2021.

Adlink is an official sponsor of the IAC and will provide university teams with “rugged deep learning acceleration edge platforms, engineering resources for in-vehicle computing and open source software support for ROS-based middleware.” Adlink is collaborating with The Autoware Foundation, Open Robotics, OpenCV, and Eclipse Foundation in supporting the IAC teams.

 
DLAP-8000

The DLAP-8000 Series is based on Adlink’s 9th Gen Coffee Lake based Matrix edge computers, sharing many features of the Matrix MXC-6600, MVP-5100-MXM, and MVP-6120-MXM, among other models, but without an exact match. Most notably, it adds at least two more PCIe slots and two more SATA interfaces than any of the systems. On the software side it has more in common with Adlink’s Coffee Lake based ROScube-I robot controller.

DLAP-8000 (left) and with open compartment
(click images to enlarge)

The DLAP-8000 runs Ubuntu 18.04 and Win 10 IoT Enterprise on up to octa-core 9th Gen Core and Xeon LGA processors and an Intel C246 chipset. The IAC implementation appears to be use Linux. The Autoware Foundation, for example, was cofounded by Linaro, Tier IV, and Apex.AI to develop an autonomous driving stack built around Tier IV’s Linux/ROS based Autoware middleware.

The 350 x 210 x 210mm DLAP-8000 can load up to 64GB DDR4 2400 RAM, including ECC RAM with some CPU SKUs. The system ships with a CFast slot and 4x hot-swappable SATA III trays with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support.

PCIe expansion includes 2x PCIe x16 (x8 signal), 2x PCIe x8 (x4), and 1x PCIe x4 (x1) slots. In addition to the 5x PCIe slots, there are M.2 B/M and mini-PCIe slots, each with its own SIM card slot.

The DLAP-8000 is equipped with 3x GbE, 4x COM, 2x USB 3.1 Gen2, a single USB 3.1 Gen1 port, and 3x USB 2.0 ports. Other features include 2x DP++, DVI-I, audio I/O, DIO, 2x I2C, support for TPM 2.0, and 2x optional Function Module v.2 slots.

The wall-mountable system has a 24 VDC input with optional AC supply and supports 0 to 50°C temperatures. You also get 3 Grms vibration and 30 Grms shock resistance with SSDs, plus various compliances for humidity, ESD, EMC, and safety.

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the “preliminary” DLAP-8000 Series. More information may be found in Adlink’s IAC announcement and DLAP-8000 product page.