Vecow has launched a Whiskey Lake based “ABP-3000” edge AI system with up to 2x optional Hailo-8 NPUs plus 4x USB 3.1, 4x COM, 2x DP, mini-PCIe, and 4x GbE, 2x of which support PoE.

Hailo has found another hardware partner to deploy its Hailo-8 neural processing unit (NPU). Vecow is featuring Hailo-8 as an option on a new ABP-3000 edge AI computer, which runs Linux or Win 10 on Intel’s 8th Gen Whiskey Lake processors.

ABP-3000, front and back

The semi-rugged, 224 x 149 x 32.6mm system is designed for machine vision, in-vehicle computing, robotic control, public safety, and other edge AI applications. Other Whiskey Lake based Vecow computers include its SPC-5000 and -5100.

Hailo-8 M.2

The ABP-3000 can load “multiple” up to 26-TOPS, 3-TOPS per Watt Hailo-8 NPUs via Hailo’s Hailo-8 M.2 AI Acceleration Module. This is an M.2 M-key module so it is presumably limited to the dual M.2 B-key slots. The combined solution is said to enable over 3000 fps performance on Resnet-50, over 2500 fps on Mobilenet-V1 SSD, over 450 fps on Yolo-v5m, and up to 230 fps on Yolo-v3. Typical power consumption is said to run to only 25W. The ABP-3000 supports Intel’s OpenVINO AI software.

One of the M.2 B-key slots offers PCIe x2/USB 3.1 support and is accompanied by an internal SIM card slot. The other supports PCIe x2/SATA. Additional expansion is available via an M.2 E-key slot (PCIe x1) for WiFi/BT and a mini-PCIe slot (PCIe/USB), which has its own internal SIM card slot. There also appear to be 4x antenna mounts.

The ABP-3000 is available with the quad-core, 1.7GHz/4.4GHz Core i7-8665UE or the dual-core, 2.2GHz/3.9GHz Core i3-8145UE, both with 15W TDPs. You can load up to 64GB DDR4-2400 via dual slots.

Two of the four Intel i350 based Gigabit Ethernet ports support PoE+ (802.3at) at 25.5W/48V. WoL and PXE are also supported.

ABP-3000 and detail views
(click images to enlarge)

The system is further equipped with 4x USB ports, which are mostly listed as USB 3.1 except for the detail view which says USB 3.0. The product page says the ports offer up to 10Gbps throughput, which suggests USB 3.1 Gen2.

The ABP-3000 provides 3x RS-232/422/485 ports with ESD 8kV protection and 2x DisplayPorts at up to 4096 x 2304 @60Hz. Other features include 16x isolated DIO via a terminal block plus 2x audio jacks (Realtek ALC888S-VD) and 2x LEDs.

There is also a TPM 2.0 security chip. TPM, which is increasingly common on embedded systems, is likely to soon be ubiquitous considering Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0.

The ABP-3000 has a 9-50V mini-DIN interface with “16 Model” ignition control and a remote switch terminal block. There is also a power button and a choice of optional power supplies. A watchdog and HW monitoring are also available.

The 1.4 kg system has a 0 to 60°C range with 5% to 95% non-condensing humidity and 95% @ 75°C relative humidity tolerance. There is 50G shock resistance per IEC 60068-2-27 and 5 Grms vibration resistance per ƒ IEC 60068-2-64. Several EMC compliances are also listed. The system is available with an optional VHub One-Stop AIoT Solution Service.

Vecow plans to feature the Hailo-8 on future systems. The NPU has been adopted by Foxconn for a BOXiedge edge AI server, which runs Linux on Socionext’s SynQuacer SC2A11 SoC with 24x Cortex-A53 cores. The NPU is also being deployed by Leopard Imaging for its EdgeTuring system, which runs Linux on a quad -A7 and ISP equipped Socionext SC2000 SoC and features dual [email protected] Sony IMX477 sensors. More recently it showed up on a pair of Intel-based Lanner computers.

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the ABP-3000. More information may be found in Vecow’s announcement and product page.