Axiomtek’s 6th Gen Core “PICO500” Pico-ITX SBC offers extended temperature support, a mini-PCIe slot, and expansion ports with optional I/O cards.

Following in a line of earlier Axiomtek Pico-ITX boards with Intel Core processors, such as the 4th Gen “Haswell” PICO880, the PICO500 brings the 14nm 6th Gen Core “Skylake” U-series CPUs to the 100 x 72mm form factor along with -20 to 70°C support. This is the first Skylake-based Pico-ITX board we’ve seen, as well as the smallest Skylake SBC. As usual, no OS support is listed, but Linux and Windows should run with no problem.

PICO500, front and back
(click images to enlarge)

The PICO500 can use any U-series Core or Celeron chip, but ships in three dual-core, 15W SKUs, as listed farther below. You can load up to 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM.

Real-world coastline ports are limited to a GbE port and an HDMI port. An LVDS interface sits alongside, as well as a 12V DC input jack. Other standard features include coastline SATA-600, audio I/O, and a USB 2.0 port.

PICO500 detail view, front and back
(click images to enlarge)

Like the PICO880, the PICO500 has a pair of expansion connectors in addition to a mini-PCIe slot with mSATA. The expansion connectors each support a different mix of interfaces as shown in the detail view at the left, above, and mate with the real-world port expansion adapters illustrated below.


Real-world port expansion adapters
(click image to enlarge)

Axiomtek currently offers three optional real-world port expansion adapter boards for the PICO500 and some of its other Pico-ITX SBCs. One of the adapters supports four USB 3.0 ports, two serial ports, plus VGA and HD audio I/O. Another is the same, except it swaps out VGA and audio for HDMI and GbE. The third enables cabled remote location of serial, USB, and audio ports, along with power and reset buttons and a pair of status LEDs.


PICO500 with active thermal solution
(click image to enlarge)

Other features of the PICO500 include hardware monitoring, a watchdog, and Intel AMT 11 support. The -20 to 70 C support requires one of the optional active thermal solutions, such as the one shown above.

Specifications listed for the PICO500 include:

• Processor — 6th Generation Intel Core U-series i7/i5/i3 & Celeron with Intel HD Graphics; main SKUs include:
  • Core i7-6600U (2.6GHz/3.4GHz, 4MB cache, 15W TDP)
  • Core i3-6100U (2.3GHz, 3MB cache, 15W TDP)
  • Celeron 3955U (2.0GHz, 2MB cache, 15W TDP)
• Memory — Up to 16GB DDR4-2133 via 1x SODIMM
• Storage — SATA-600; mSATA via full-size mini-PCIe socket
• Display:
  • HDMI port for up to Ultra HD 4K
  • 18/24-bit single/dual-channel LVDS
  • DDI interface via expansion connector
• Networking — Gigabit Ethernet port (Intel i219LM) with Wake-on-LAN, PXE boot
• Other I/O:
  • USB 2.0 interface
  • Audio in/out (Realtek ALC662)
• Expansion:
  • 2x general expansion connectors:
    • 4x USB 3.0, DDI, PCIe
    • 2x UART, HD audio, power/reset buttons, LEDs
  • Full-size mini-PCIe (with mSATA support)
  • SMBus
• Other features — hardware monitoring, watchdog timer; Intel AMT 11 support; optional heatsink with fan, heatspreader, cables
• Power — 12VDC jack; AT auto power on support; Lithium 3V/220mAH battery
• Power consumption — 2.3A (i7-6600U), 1.9A (i3-6100U), 1.7A (Celeron 3955U)
• Operating temperature — -20 to 70°C with active thermal solution
• Dimensions — 100 x 72 x 1.6mm; Pico-ITX form-factor

 
Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the PICO500. More information may be found on Axiomtek’s PICO500 product page.