Advantech is to offer a COM-HPC evaluation kit in the fourth quarter of 2020, with a server pin-out equipped with Intel Xeon D processor.

Advantech-COM-HPC-and-others

COM-HPC is a computer-on-module standard for high-performance computing (HPC).

The standard enlarges COM board size, so that size D (160 x 160mm) and E (160 x 200mm) can support four to eight long DIMM sockets that cannot physically fit on COM Express (see diagram).

To be called SOM-8990 (to go with with carrier board SOM-DB8900), the evaluation kit will have:

• COM-HPC Server type pin-out
• Intel Xeon D 16 core 110W TDP processor (only 65W for COM-Express)
• Up to 512Gbyte memory with eight 288pin RDIMM/LRDIMM
• Up to 45 lanes PCIe Gen. 3 (x16, x8, x4, x1)
• 4x ports USB 3.0
• 2x ports SATA III
• Up to 4x ports 10GBASE-KR
• 1x port 1000BASE-T
• Size E (200 x 160mm)

“This new standard was necessary as the existing standard COM Express Type 7, in place since 2016, is not able to handle the demands of new requirements, such as 5G-data communication,” according to Advantech. “The new standard will be the technological platform for a series of high-performance computer-on-modules to be released by Advantech as an extension of its portfolio. They will be designed to meet the requirements of next-generation IoT markets, where they have to handle and process with very high quantities of data.”

Such an application is real time data synchronisation and the processing of machinery in factory lines – or at different locations – for industrial automation. Defence systems, medical imaging and robotic warehouses are other predicted uses.

Advantech is a member of the PICMG COM-HPC subcommittee and has been helping define the specifications for more than two years – it is scheduled for ratification at the end of this year.

All five COM-HPC module standards, A (120 x 95mm) to E, will have 800 pins via two new high-speed connectors with at least 4 x 100 pins each and 2 x 400pin board-to-board connectors – allowing increased power transfer (>300W) as well as more I/O.

Size E features up to 1Tbyte memory through its eight long DIMM slots. Size C, the largest COM-Express, offers 128Gbyte via four SODIMM slots.

COM-HPC also supports higher bandwidths via its BGA-type board-to-board connectors – PCIe 4.0 and PCIe Gen 5 offer up to 32Gtransfer/s and can be scaled to 65 lanes.