Congatec unveiled a “Conga-TCV2” Type 6 module with AMD’s Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoC. The company also launched six -40 to 85°C versions of its Type 6 and COM-HPC Tiger Lake modules and previewed a COM-HPC carrier.

Congatec has announced a Conga-TCV2 module with AMD’s Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoC that competes with with Adlink’s similarly COM Express Compact Type 6 cExpress-AR module. The Linux-ready module exploits V2000 tech advances such as 64GB RAM support, 2.5GbE Ethernet, USB 3.1 Gen2, and additional PCIe Gen3 lanes.

Conga-TCV2

The German embedded vendor also announced a half dozen industrial temperature variants of its Tiger Lake based Conga-TC570 Type 6 and Conga-HPC/cTLU COM-HPC modules and previewed an ATX form-factor Conga-HPC/EVAL-Client carrier. We cover this news farther below along with Advantech’s preview of its own COM-HPC module and carrier and new Congatec initiatives in fog computing and a TSN/TCC.

 
Conga-TCV2

Like Adlink’s cExpress-AR, the Conga-TCV2 offers a choice of the four new Ryzen Embedded V2000 models on a 95 x 95mm Compact Type 6 form factor. The module follows Congatec’s V1000-based, Basic Type 6 Conga-TR4 module.

AMD’s Ryzen Embedded V2000, which will also appear on some ASRock and Ibase SBCs and compact embedded systems, advances to 7nm-fabricated Zen 2 cores compared to the 14nm Zen 1 cores on the Ryzen Embedded V1000 and R1000. The V2000 doubles the multi-threaded performance-per-watt compared to the V1000 and offers up to 30 percent better single-thread CPU performance, claims AMD. Graphics performance is claimed to be 40 percent higher.

AMD announced two hexa-core and two octa-core models led by a V2748 with 2.9GHz base and 4.25GHz boost rates and a 35-54W TDP. Two of the models offer 10-25W TDPs. The Radeon graphics cores provide 6x or 8x CPU cores and up to 1.6GHz clock speeds. Other features include improved security features and up to 20x PCIe Gen3 lanes.

Conga-TCV2 render (left) and Ryzen Embedded V2000 specs
(click images to enlarge)

Like the cExpress-AR, the Conga-TCV2 supports up to 64GB DDR4-3200 and offers a 2.5GbE Ethernet controller, in this case enabled with TSN. The module offers 8x PCIe Gen3 lanes, compared to 6x on the Adlink module, and similarly provides PCIe x8 Gen2 via PEG pins. On the other hand, the module is limited to 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 interfaces compared to up to 4x on the cExpress-AR.

The Conga-TCV2 similarly supports quadruple 4KP60 displays. It offers triple DDI (DP 1.4/HDMI 2.1/DP++) and optional eDP in place of LVDS. Audio features include HDA audio, I2S, and 2x Soundwire.

Additional peripheral support includes 2x SATA III, 8x USB 2.0, 2x UART, 8x GPIO, and SPI. A Congatec Boad Controller provides a watchdog, I2C, HW monitoring, and more. The module supports TPM 2.0, ACPI 5.0 power management with battery support, and a 0 to 60°C operating range with 10-90% non-condensing relative humidity tolerance.

The Conga-TCV2 supports Linux/Yocto, Android Q, Windows 10, and Wind River VxWorks. The module also supports Real-Time Systems’ RTS Hypervisor, which enables applications including digitization and parallel-processed edge analytics with workload balancing and consolidation. Other applications include industrial and thin-client systems, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and e-mobility.

 
New Tiger Lake modules

Congatec’s early September announcement of its Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake UP3 based COM-HPC form-factor Conga-HPC/cTLU and Compact Type 6 Conga-TC570 modules was followed by an early October update announcement revealing additional SKUs for the modules with embedded focused “E” and “GRE” Tiger Lake models. Congatec has now added three new E and GRE variants for each module.

Conga-HPC/cTLU (left) and Conga-TC570
(click image to enlarge)

The new modules bump the extended temperature support up to an industrial -40 to 85°C range. Like the earlier E and GRE variants, the SKUs provide extended purchase availability and slightly lower base and Turbo frequencies than the standard models.

 
Congatec and Advantech preview COM-HPC carriers

The Conga-HPC/cTLU will be able to plug into a newly announced Conga-HPC/EVAL-Client carrier board. The ATX board supports COM-HPC sizes A, B, and C and will be available with three different cooling options.

The Conga-HPC/EVAL-Client will offer modular Ethernet support with options including Ethernet KR, up to 2x 10 GbE, 2.5GbE, and 1GbE. The board also features 2x “massively performant” PCIe Gen4 x16 connectors that enable add-on cards up to “4×25 GbE.” It’s unclear if that means four 2.5GbE ports or four 25GbE ports. Intel’s 10nm Tiger Lake platform is notable for its support for PCIe Gen4, among other features including USB 4 (Thunderbolt 4) support and vastly improved Iris Xe graphics with 4x 4K support.

Conga-HPC/EVAL-Client render (left) and Advantech SOM-DB8900 with SOM-8990 module under the cooler
(click images to enlarge)

We missed Advantech’s early September announcement of its endorsement of the COM-HPC standard, but this week, Embedded Computing Design released a similar announcement on behalf of Advantech. Both announcements reveal an upcoming, Intel Xeon D based SOM-8990 module and SOM-DB8900 carrier that comply with the COM-HPC Server spec rather than the Client model used by Congatec.

Developed by Adlink, Congatec, and Kontron, COM-HPC provides 800 interface pins, up from 440 on COM Express. The spec does not replace Type 7, but is generally considered a successor required for platforms with higher-bandwidth PCIe and USB connections, such as Tiger Lake.

Advantech SOM-8990

Advantech’s SOM-8990 module and SOM-DB8900 carrier will support the 16-core Xeon D with up to 512GB RAM and 45 lanes of PCIe Gen3. Other features include 1GbE, 4x 10GBASE-KR (10GbE), 4x USB 3.0, and 2x SATA III. The SOM-8990 also shows up in this Advantech COM product brief (PDF).

Finally, Congatec released a pair of vague announcements that appear to relate primarily to the Tiger Lake modules. First, it announced support for fog computing for high-end edge servers running on COM-HPC and COM Express Type 7 modules.

The company also announced support for Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Intel’s related Time Coordinated Computing (Intel TCC), which are both available on many Tiger Lake and Elkhart Lake Atom x6000E models. (In September, Congatec announced a Conga-PA7 Pico-ITX SBC based on Elkhart Lake.)

Congatec has updated its TSN Demo system to add support for TCC and “additional time stamp counter (TSC) functions, which manage the synchronized execution of operations down to the I/Os in real-time.” The demo system incorporates a 2.5GbE Intel I225 controller and supports the RTS Hypervisor.

“While TSN orchestrates the different actors — a bit like the conductor and his orchestra — by setting the network time, TCC technology ensures that the different actors execute their operations exactly when they are supposed to,” stated Martin Danzer, Director Product Management at Congatec.

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the Conga-TCV2 module with Ryzen Embedded V1000. More information may be found in Congatec’s announcement and product page. Other Congatec announcements regarding the industrial temperature Tiger Lake modules, Conga-HPC/EVAL-Client, and fog computing and TSN/TCC initiatives may be found in the links farther above.