Avalue’s rugged, 3.5-inch “ECM-EHL” runs Linux or Win 10 on an Atom x6000E and offers up to 32GB DDR4-3200, 2.5GbE and GbE, 2x USB 3.1 Gen2, triple 4K displays, and 2x M.2 slots with SIM.

Avalue has posted specs for a 3.5-inch ECM-EHL SBC that runs on Intel’s new dual- or quad-core Elkhart Lake Atom x6000E, Pentium, and Celeron SoCs. Elkhart Lake runs on 10nm SuperFin Tremont CPU cores and up to 32EU Intel Gen11 graphics with triple 4K and improved AI performance. Intel claims up to 1.7x better single-thread, 1.5x better multi-thread, and 2x better graphics performance compared to Gemini Lake.

Intel’s Elkhart Lake integrates an Intel Programmable Services Engine (Intel PSE) built around a Cortex-M7 with features including remote out-of-band (OOB) and in-band (INB) device management. Other Elkhart Lake highlights include support for more RAM and 2.5GbE ports with TSN. (For more details, see our Elkhart Lake report.)

ECM-EHL
(click image to enlarge)

When comparing Avalue’s ECM-EHL to its Apollo Lake based ECM-APL2 3.5-inch entry, the most significant difference is that one of the two Ethernet ports is 2.5GbE. There is also support for up to 32GB DDR4-3200 instead of 8GB DDR3L-1867.

Neither of these improvements are available on Congatec’s smaller, Elkhart Lake based Conga-PA7 Pico-ITX board, which can load up to 16GB RAM. Yet, the Congatec SBC exploits another Elkhart Lake enhancement: support for up to 512GB UFS 2.0 flash.

The ECM-EHL provides triple independent 4K display interfaces with higher 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz resolution compared to dual 3840 x 2160 @ 30Hz connections on the earlier ECM-APL2. Two of the four coastline USB ports use the faster USB 3.1 Gen2 technology.

Other improvements that are not linked to Elkhart Lake include the switch from mini-PCIe to M.2 slots and the addition of a SIM slot. You also get wide-range, 9-36V power and rated vibration, shock, and drop resistance in addition to the earlier optional -40 to 85°C support. The SBC provides a “bottom layer soldered processor” to improve durability.

Specifications listed for the ECM-EHL include:

• Processor — Intel Elkhart Lake Atom x6000E, Celeron, and Pentium (2x or 4x 10nm Elkhart Lake cores @ up to 1.8GHz/3.0GHz; Intel UHD Graphics (Intel Gen11) up to 32EU; built-in Cortex-M7; 4.5-12W TDP; EC ITE IT5571 I/O chipset; bottom layer soldered
• Memory — Up to 32GB DDR4-3200 via 1x SODIMM
• Storage — SATA 3.0; mSATA via M.2 B-key
• Networking:
  • 2.5GbE port (I225LM or I225IT for wide temp)
  • GbE port (I211 or I210 for wide temp)
  • Cellular available via M.2 B-key or WiFi/BT via E-key
• Media I/O:
  • HDMI 2.0b port at up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
  • DP 1.4a port at up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
  • eDP 1.3 at up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
  • LVDS
  • Triple display support
  • Audio line-in, line-out, mic-in (Realtek ALC892)
• Other I/O:
  • 2x USB 3.1 Gen2 ports
  • 2x USB 2.0 ports
  • 2x USB 2.0 headers
  • RS-232/422/485 port
  • 3x RS-232 headers
  • 20-pin DIO/GPIO with SMBus, +5V, GND
  • LPC, SPI
• Expansion:
  • M.2 B-key 2242/3042 slot with SIM slot (default: PCIe x1, SATA 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen2)
  • M.2 E-key 2230 (PCIe x1, USB 2.0)
• Other features – Watchdog; HW monitoring; TPM 2.0
• Power — 9-36V via 12/24VDC AT/ATX; ACPI 5.0
• Ruggedization:
  • 0 to 60°C with 0.2m/s air flow; optional -40 to 85°C with 0.5m/s
  • 1.5Grms vibration resistance per IEC 60068-2-64
  • 10G shock resistance per IEC 60068-2-27
  • ISTA 2A drop resistance per IEC-60068-2-32
  • 40°C @ 95% non-condensing relative humidity
• Dimensions — 146 x 101mm (“3.5-inch form factor”)
• Weight — 0.2 kg
• Operating system — Linux; Windows 10

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for Avalue’s “coming soon” and yet to be announced ECM-EHL, which we found out about on CNXSoft. More information may be found on the product page.