Aaeon is prepping several boards based on Intel 11th Gen and Atom x6000E chips including “UP Xtreme i11” and “UP Squared Pro 2” SBCs. Meanwhile, Congatec unveiled two Tiger Lake COM models with the new embedded “GRE” parts.

The recent flurry of product introductions based on Intel’s 10nm fabricated 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core and and Elkhart Lake Atom-6000E processors included some news from Aaeon and Congatec. Aaeon announced several Tiger Lake and Elkhart Lake products but with few details. Congatec revealed new models in its previously announced, 11th Gen Conga-TC570 and Conga-HPC/cTLU modules that make use of newly announced embedded Tiger Lake models (see farther below).

Aaeon COM-TGUC6 (left) and Congatec Conga-TC570
(click images to enlarge)

All the Aaeon products will arrive “in the coming months,” says the company. The Aaeon Tiger Lake lineup will include the COM-TGUC6 COM Express Compact Type 6 module pictured above, which follows earlier Compact Type 6 modules such as Aaeon’s 8th Gen Whiskey Lake based COM-WHUC6.

There are also a pair of SBCs sold in volume that follow earlier 8th Gen Whiskey Lake boards from Aaeon. These include the 3.5-inch GENE-TGU6, which follows the GENE-WHU6 and a PICO-TGU4 Pico-ITX SBC that follows the PICO-WHU4.

For “makers and independent developers,” Aaeon will release a Tiger Lake follow-on to its community-backed, Whiskey Lake based UP Xtreme SBC called the UP Xtreme i11. In July, Aaeon announced a slightly scaled down UP Xtreme Lite with the same 8th Gen processor lineup, but with UE series embedded parts. The Lite is still not available for sale.

UP Squared

Aaeon also teased a new Intel Elkhart Lake based UP board. The UP Squared Pro 2 will improve on the Apollo Lake Atom based Up Squared maker board. The only feature mentioned is an M.2 3042/3052 slot designed for 4G and 5G modules. The existing Up Squared has M.2 E-key 2230 and mini-PCIe slots.

Aaeon will also introduce a more commercial Pico-ITX board with Elkhart Lake. The PICO-EHL4 will follow earlier Aaeon Pico-ITX SBCs with Atom-class SoCs such as its Apollo Lake based PICO-APL4. The new PICO-EHL4 will provide 4x up to 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (up from 2x USB 3.0), as well as 2x HDMI ports (up from one), and 2x GbE ports.

Aaeon made no mention of OS support, but we would be shocked if any of these products did not support Linux.

 
Congatec expands its Tiger Lake COM selection

When Congatec announced 12 Tiger Lake modules last week, what it really meant was that it was expanding the SKUs for its Linux-ready, COM Express Compact Type 6 Conga-TC570 and its Conga-HPC/cTLU, which adopts the new 800-pin COM-HPC form factor. Congatec announced the modules in early September, but without mention of the specific 11th Gen chips they were using.

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

The Conga-TC570 and Conga-HPC/cTLU will support the embedded IoT variants of Tiger Lake processors that were announced last week along with the Elkhart Lake lineup. Each provide 3x E-series and 3x GRE-series in Core-i7, i6, and i3 models.

The “E” and “GRE” models offer extended purchase availability and have wider temperature ranges and slightly lower base and Turbo frequencies than the standard, similarly named UP3 siblings. The TDPs remain the same.

Tiger Lake embedded CPUs available for the Conga-HPC/cTLU and Conga-TC570
(click image to enlarge)

The “GRE” models add Intel Time Coordinated Computing (Intel TCC) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) networking features, which are also supported on Intel’s lower-power “RE” Elkhart Lake SoCs. In addition, the Tiger Lake GRE parts provide the Intel Safety Island functional safety (FuSa) features found on the Elkhart Lake “FE” models.

The Tiger Lake models used by Congatec are the same that Kontron recently announced for its COMe-cTL6 Compact Type 6 module. Adlink’s cExpress-TL Compact Type 6 entry will support the E models, including a yet-to-be-announced dual-core Celeron 6305E, but not the GRE models.

Intel 11th Gen CPU

 
Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake and Elkhart Lake recap

Like Intel’s 10th Gen Ice Lake, the 11th Gen Tiger Lake Core processors use a 10nm design, but updated with SuperFin technology and Intel’s Willow Cove microarchitecture. In addition to providing a significant CPU boost, Tiger Lake offers a huge graphics improvement with its Intel Gen12 Iris Xe graphics. Intel Xe, which is available on most Tiger Lake models, has up to 96 EUs compared to 64 on Ice Lake’s Intel Gen11. Iris Xe supports 4x simultaneous 4K displays and offers improved neural network inferencing with Intel DL Boost. Tiger Lake also adds support for PCIe Gen 4 and the up to 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4).

The Elkhart Lake Atom x6000E, Pentium, and Celeron SoCs run on 10nm SuperFin Tremont CPU cores with 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. 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.

 
Further information

The Aaeon Tiger Lake and Elkhart Lake products will arrive “in the coming months.” More information may be found in Aaeon’s announcement.

At least some of the Conga-HPC/cTLU and Conga-TC570 SKUs appear to be available, with pricing undisclosed. More information may be found in Congatec’s announcement.