Aaeon’s “COM-CFHB6” COM Express Basic Type 6 module is available with 8th or 9th Gen H-series Core and Xeon CPUs and offers up to 48GB DDR4 with ECC plus support for 12x USB ports and 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes.

Aaeon has announced a COM Express Basic Type 6 module that supports Intel’s 8th Gen Coffee Lake and 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh H-series chips. We’ve seen similar combinations on Congatec’s refreshed Conga-TS370 and Kontron’s similarly updated COMe-bCL6. The new COM-CFHB6 module follows other Aaeon Basic Type 6 entries including its 6th Gen Skylake powered COM-KBHB6.

COM-CFHB6, front and back
(click images to enlarge)

The 125 x 95mm COM-CFHB6 is touted for its slim, 28mm profile. Applications include digital signage, factory automation, robotic controllers, and edge devices or AIOT gateways in smart city applications. No OS support was listed, but Linux should run with no problem.

Supported 8th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh models include the hexa-core, 12-thread Core i7-8850H clocked at 2.6GHz/4.3GHz and the quad-core, 8-thread Core i5-8400H at 2.4GHz/4.2GHz. It also supports the 8th Gen, quad-core, 4-thread Core i3-8100H, which has an unusual mix of a relatively low price, a high 3GHz base clock rate (at least for an i3), and a reasonably power efficient 45W TDP. The fourth major SKU is the 8th Gen, 2.7GHz/4.4GHz Xeon-E2176M with six cores, 12 threads, and a 45W TDP.

9th Gen Refresh models include the 6-core, 12-thread Xeon E-2276ME/ML (2.8GHz/4.5GHz) and Core i7-9850HE/HL (2.7GHz/4.4GHz) and the quad-core, 8-thread Xeon E-2254ME/ML (2.6GHz/3.8GHz). The listed clock rates are for the HE models — the HL frequencies are slightly lower. Finally, there’s a 9th Gen, 3GHz Core i3-9100HL with a quad-core, 4-thread design.

The 8th Gen Xeon-E2176M and all the 9th Gen chips except the i7-9850HE/HL ship with Intel CM246 chipsets while the others offer the QM370. With the CM246, you can load up to up to 48GB DDR4-2666 with ECC via triple sockets. Otherwise, you are limited to 32GB.

The COM-CFHB6 integrates an Intel I219 GbE controller with WoL support. Triple displays are supported via 2x DDI, VGA, and either 18-24-bit, dual-channel LVDS or eDP. Optionally you can replace the VGA interface with a third DDI. An HD Audio code is also onboard.

COM-CFHB6 and block diagram
(click images to enlarge)

Although the announcement mentions 4x USB 3.1 Gen 2, the product page, data sheet, and block diagram variably list 4x USB 3.0 and 4x USB 3.1. This suggests that it’s probably USB 3.1 Gen 1, which is the new name for USB 3.0. Additional I/O includes 8x USB 2.0, 4x SATA 3.0, 2x 2-wire UART, and 8-bit GPIO.

Expansion features include a single PCIe x16 and 8x PCIe x1 lanes. You also get LPC, SMBus, a watchdog, and optional TPM 1.2 or 2.0. The 12V module has a 0 to 60°C operating range with humidity tolerance of 10% to 95%, non-condensing. Options include CPU coolers and heatspreaders.

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the COM-CFHB6. More information may be found in Aaeon’s announcement and product page.