WHITE PAPER
COM-HPC™ Taking Standardized COMs to the next level CONTENTS
COM Express® FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH // 4 COM Express® 7: ENABLING // 4 IIOT HPC EDGE SERVER ENVIRONMENTS WHY COM-HPC™? // 5 COM-HPC™: // 5 FOR HIGH-END EMBEDDED HPC APPLICATIONS COM-HPC™: KEY HIGHLIGHTS // 6 THE FUTURE OF EMBEDDED HPC: // 7 COMe TYPE 7 & COM-HPC™ KONTRON: VALUE ADDED // 8 SUMMARY // 9
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 2 The long-established COM Express® standard for Computer- on-Modules (COM) will soon be joined by a new High Performance Computing standard. This is currently being finalized by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG®). Why is this necessary and what does it mean for the widely adopted COM Express®?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Enabling more powerful and sophisticated embedded 400 Pin Connector Heiß ersehnt - neuer servers and client devices for High Performance Computing Computer on (HPC) applications is a constant challenge for the embed- ded computing industry. In 2017 this led the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG®) to introduce its
400400 Pin Pin Pin Connector Connector Connector 400 Pin Connector COM Express® Type 7 standard. Kontron was fast to market with its first COMe Type 7 multicore processor embedded solutions, supporting powerful data analysis and real-time processing for edge server platforms. 400400 Pin Pin Pin Connector Connector Connector However, the embedded computing industry must always be ready to anticipate and respond quickly to the challeng- es of future technologies and applications. These are being driven by the industrial internet of things (IIoT), some of which are already starting to make an impact: artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and 5G wireless will COM Express® create enormous data volumes and require unprecedented basic computing power and greater connectivity. At the same time, totally new design concepts for embedded comput- COM Express® ers are urgently required as existing standards will no compact longer be sufficient to cope. In response to these growing high performance computing
// Taking Standardized COMs to the next level requirements, a new working group was set up last year as part of the PICMG® standardization committee. This is to ensure the COM standard remains fit-for-purpose in the future. As a member of PICMG®, Kontron has been a driving influencer of the COM Express® standard since its inception. The company continues to be deeply involved in new developments, ensuring the standard’s continued success and evolution. Therefore, Kontron is currently collaborating on a new highly specific High Performance Computing standard which will be complementary to COM Express® while taking the proven concept of standardized COMs to a whole new level. This whitepaper considers the work that Kontron and other leading manufacturers are undertaking in order to deliver the new complementary COM Express® standard later this year: Computer-On-Modules High Performance Computing (COM-HPC™). In addition to reviewing the background to this initiative and highlighting the forthcoming standard’s key features, the future implications for COM Express® are also discussed.
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 3 COM Express®: FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH In addition, following its introduction three years ago in The many advantages of adopting COMs for building revision 3.0 of the COM Express® specification, COM embedded applications are widely understood and Express® Type 7 has been increasingly deployed by accepted by system developers. Compared to full developers - in the rapidly emerging market for IIoT high custom designs, they can offer a faster, more flexible performance edge servers. and scalable approach. COMs can be deployed as quickly as off-the shelf motherboards and have the benefit of making future processor upgrades much easier. COM Express® TYPE 7: ENABLING IIOT HPC EDGE SERVER ENVIRONMENTS The industry demand for COMs has therefore risen Type 7, derived from Type 6 and therefore complementary, dramatically over the last 20 years. This has been mainly offers unprecedented scalability, performance and driven and dominated by the success of standardized connectivity all on one platform. The Type 6 pinout was COMs due to the industry’s ongoing initiatives to ensure partially modified with the deletion of all audio and the availability of standardized modules. These have graphics interfaces since these are largely superfluous provided designers with the peace of mind of clear tech- in edge-based IIoT environments; retaining only four of nology roadmaps, long-term availability of modules in the eight USB 2.0 ports; keeping just two instead of all specific format factor sizes, and wide-ranging accesso- four SATA ports. Therefore, by replacing graphics ries. Furthermore, standardized COMs from multiple support with multiple 10 GbE-KR ports and defining 32 vendors has eliminated reliance on single vendors which PCIe lanes, Type 7 is intended for the design of has stimulated healthy market competition and pricing. server-grade HPC platforms used for applications requesting high data and network throughput. Released in 2005 by the PICMG® COM Express® is the most adopted COM standard worldwide with a two- Com Express Type 6 Com Express Type 7 thirds market share and an expected CAGR of around Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet 15 % over the next years. Standardized modules are USB 3.0 0-3 USB 3.0 0-3 LPC LPC / eSPI provided to cover a wide range of target applications SATA 0-1 through defined module Types. These have specific pin SATA 0-3 PCIe 6,7 PCIe 6,7 out configurations and feature sets on one or two PCIe 14,15 220-pin connectors. The various module sizes allow HDA Reserved 10GBase KR 0-3 considerable flexibility and choice, depending on the USB 2.0 0-3 DDI 0-2 intended application, while still maintaining compatibility USB 2.0 0-7 within each module Type. PCIe 12,13
PCIe 0-5 PCIe 0-5 Over the years, COM Express® has become popular for LVDS / eDP PCIe 8-11 PCIe 16-31 use in many kinds of embedded computing applications, VGA PEG NC-SI such as those found in the Industrial Automation, Defense and Transportation sectors. SPI & I2C SPI & I2C Today, the standard includes the Mini (84 x 55 mm), SER 0-1 SER 0-1 Compact (95 x 95 mm) and Basic (125 x 95 mm) form Power Power Power Power factors with Types 6, 7 and 10 pin outs. COM Express® Type 6 vs Type 7 COM Express® Type 6 continues to address many embedded client needs by offering a broad range of I/O Features: interfaces for graphics, Digital Display Interfaces 4x 10 GBaseKR Ethernet (DisplayPort, HDMI, LVDS or eDP) and super-fast USB 3.1. NC-SI It is therefore equipped to serve many different kinds of 32x PCI Express® lanes application requirements across various market 2x SATA segments. This has been helped by embedded solutions 4x USB 3.0 / 2.0 manufacturers offering essential applications pre-inte- grated on carrier boards as well as custom interfaces. Removed: All necessary functionality is therefore easily available DDI 0-2 at single board level. COM Express® Type 6 also offers SATA 2-3 wide scalability with compact and basic size form AC97 / HDA Audio factors and proven ability to use processors with a TDP VGA (thermal design power) of 50 watts or more. LVDS / eDP
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 4 WHY COM-HPC™? COM-HPC™: FOR HIGH-END EMBEDDED HPC The impact of the IIoT is rapidly taking embedded APPLICATIONS computing to a whole new level. In Industrial Automa- The new COM-HPC™ standard will provide five new form tion, for example, exponential amounts of data are being factor modules designated A, B, C, D and E. produced from sensors, devices and actuators, often requiring local pre-processing at the edge. Similarly, in the Communications sector the advent of 5G wireless 400 Pin Connector will increasingly generate huge data backhaul traffic volumes and processing requirements.
At the same time, autonomous vehicles, factory floor 400 Pin Connector and HPC workloads will demand server-class proces- sors for supporting much higher-end platforms. Many of Size E (200x160mm) these scenarios no longer take place in a protected Size D (160x160mm) high-performance computing data center or in the cloud, but close to where the data originates: on mobile masts, on production lines, in warehouses, at processing plants or in autonomous vehicles. I/O data throughput and Size A A (95x120mm) Size Size C (160x120mm) Size Size B (120x120mm) Size communications performance is also growing signifi- cantly. Consider for example, the quantum leap from the original Gbit/s speeds achieved by PCIe in 2003 to the 400400 Pin Pin Pin Connector Connector Connector current 32 Gbit/s of the latest PCIe Gen 5; the arrival of
100 Gigabit Ethernet and USB 4.0; and the ability of // Defined Sizes remote manageability right down to embedded units.
COM-HPC™/Client COM-HPC™/Server Therefore, developers will soon require standardized high performance COMs which go beyond the limits and A, B, C SIZE D, E capabilities of COM Express® and other COM standards. 48 + 1 PCIe 64 + 1 A new standard is necessary which - although comple- 2 MPI-CSI - mentary - is also distinct from COM Express®. It must 2 25 GbE KR 8 directly address the new demands and support the need 3 DDI - for future-proofed compute, scalability, transmission, and network performance. 2 SoundWire, I²C - 2 10GBASE-T 1 4 USB4 2 HPC DESIGN REQUIREMENTS: - USB 3.2 2 4 USB 2.0 4 Data analysis and real-time 2 SATA 2 processing on a single platform 2 UART 2 High scalability 1, 2 eSPI, SPI 1, 2 Faster networking capabilities Powerful multicore processing 1, 2 SMB / I²C 1, 2 Reliability, Availability, Manageability 12 GPIO 12 Robust design for harsh environments Provide security of IIoT edge software // Supported Interfaces applications Long term availability – secured upgrade path COM-HPC™/Client Sizes A, B, and C relate to three embedded COM-HPC™/ Client modules for use in high-end embedded applica- tions. These will focus on powerful graphics and connect 2x MIPI-CSI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface – Camera Serial Interface) for imaging tasks including those required for medical equipment, autono- mous vehicles and surveillance.
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 5 COM-HPC™/Client modules are positioned above COM Legacy features have been reduced as much as Express® Type 6, for a wide range of embedded applica- possible (e.g. no LVDS, no HDA, no VGA, no LPC) tions requiring increased processing and graphics The significant increase in compute performance will capabilities, faster data transmission and network be enabled by the increase in power supported - up to connectivity. 250-300 W overall power envelope compared to the typically maximum of 80 W of COM Express® - to Power envelope up to 150 W leverage latest generations of multicore CPUs Up to 48 + 1 PCI Express® Gen 4/5 lanes The boost in transmission and connectivity perfor- Up to 4 graphics interfaces mance will come from a new module to carrier board Up to 2x 25 Gbit Ethernet interfaces connector (high density connector). PCIe Gen 4/5 and Module sizes: A: 95 x 120 mm; 10 Gbit/25 Gbit Ethernet compliant, this will be B: 120 x 120 mm; offered in 5mm and 10mm stack heights and provide C: 160 x 120 mm 2x 400 pin out connection rather than the 2x 220 with COM Express® - thereby doubling the total number of COM-HPC™/Server supported PCIe lanes from 32 (COM Express® Type 7) Sizes D and E are for the two COM-HPC™/Server mod- to 64 for COM-HPC™/Server ules intended mainly for high performance edge server COM-HPC™ will support data rates of up to 32 Gbit/s class applications such as AI and analytics, to manage per lane via PCIe (Gen 5) compared to typically 8 high data volumes involving high speed transmission Gbit/s with COM Express® today and real-time processing. For high-end edge server applications, the increase in throughput speeds possible on COM-HPC™/Server COM-HPC™/Server modules are designed for high-end modules will substantially increase overall connec- embedded edge server class applications. They are tivity performance: up to 8x 25 Gbit Ethernet lanes focused on providing even higher scalability, compute and 64 PCIe lanes (Gen 4/5) enabling data transfer and communications performance than COM Express® rates of up to 255 Gbit/s. There will also be 2x USB 4 Type 7. interfaces which will nearly double the rates of USB 3.2 Power envelope up to 300 W COM-HPC™/Server modules will support up to Up to 64 + 1 PCI Express® Gen 4/5 lanes 1TByte of RAM using the eight DIMM sockets provided No graphic interfaces Flexible remote management: System management Up to 8x 25 Gbit Ethernet interfaces enabling interface will enable centralized control and schedul- 100 Gbit Ethernet ing for predictive maintenance; BMC (Board Manage- Module sizes: D: 160 x 160 mm; ment Controller) on carrier and MMC (Module E: 200 x 160 mm Management Controller) on module enables sensor monitoring/alerting and providing out of band remote manageability COM-HPC™: KEY HIGHLIGHTS For maximum product lifetime, COM-HPC™ modules will be easily upgradable and interchangeable as COM-HPC™ specification allows Server and Client application performance needs change and take into pin-out on all five sizes account new technology developments
COM-HPC™/Client COM Express® Type 6 COM-HPC™/Server COM Express® Type 7
2x 400 pin connector 2x 220 pin connector 2x 400 pin connector 2x 220 pin connector 2x NBase-T (max. 10 GByte) 1x NBase-T (max. 1 GByte) 2x NBase-T (max. 10 GByte) 1x NBase-T (max. 1 GByte) 48x PCIe + 1x PCIe 24x PCIe 64x PCIe + 1x PCIe 32x PCIe (dedicated for BMC) (dedicated for BMC) 2x SATA 4x SATA 2x SATA 2x SATA 4x USB 4.0, 4x USB 2.0 4x USB 3.1, 4x USB 2.0 2x USB 4.0, 2x USB 3.2, 4x USB 2.0 4x USB 3.1 2x 25 GbE KR LVDS 2x24/eDP/MIPI DSI 8x 25 GbE KR 4x 10GbE KR 3x DDI + 1x eDP/DSI + SoundWire 3x DDI + 1xLVDS or 1x eDP + HDA 1x IPMI + 1x PCIe (BMC on carrier) 1x IPMI + 1x PCIe (BMC on carrier) 1x NSCI for remote management for remote management for remote management „Low Speed“ (IPMI, eSPI, SPI (BIOS), „Low Speed“ (eSPI/LPC, SPI (BIOS), „Low Speed“ (IPMB, eSPI, SPI (BIOS), „Low Speed“ (eSPI/LPC, SPI (BIOS), GPP SPI, SMB, 2x I2C, 2x UART, SMB, I2C, HDA, UART, 8x GPIO/SDIO, GPP SPI, SMB, 2x I2C, 2x UART, SMB, I2C, UART, 8x GPIO/SDIO, 12x GPIO, MIPI CSI, MISC) MISC) 12x GPIO, MISC) MISC)
// COM-HPC™ - Comparison to COM Express®
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 6 THE FUTURE OF EMBEDDED HPC: COMe TYPE 7 & COM Express® Type 7 perfectly addresses a broad COM-HPC™ spectrum of IIoT applications requirements, including:
COMe Type 7 Value-oriented optimized performance/watt imple- For many years to come, the highly scalable COM mentations with Ethernet connectivity e.g. Network Express® Type 7 (as well as all other COM Express® types) routers, Gateways, and Microservers will continue to be a best-seller, especially when smaller Edge Cloud and Fog servers footprint, power savings, and cost are primary factors. High bandwidth Mobile Communications: at the edge Type 7 offers considerable scope for combining powerful of carrier base stations processing with high speed Ethernet connectivity and Industrial: machine temperature monitoring; camera high data throughput. It has the power and flexibility of inspection; intelligent power control; indoor and multicore parallel processing, 4x 10 Gbit network inter- outdoor small cell applications faces, and multiple PCI Express® lanes. NC-SI sideband signals also provide the ability to perform remote Kontron’s powerful COM Express® Type 7 edge HPC server diagnostics and pre-emptive maintenance in combination module portfolio (COMe-bBD7, COMe-bDV7 and COMe- with a Board Management Controller (BMC) on the base- cDV7) provides a broad feature variety and high scalability board. for various workload and performance application requirements:
2 to 16 CPU cores with Intel Atom® C3000 or Intel® PERFORMANCE Xeon® D-1500 processor family COMe-bBD7 Max 45 W CPU TDP Intel® Xeon® D-1500 Up to 4x 10Base-KR interfaces (Broadwell DE) Up to 128 GByte DDR4 memory Extended temperature range variants of -40 °C to 85 °C VALUE
COMe-bDV7 Furthermore, the COMe Evaluation Carrier T7 Board was Intel Atom® C3000 developed especially for the Kontron COMe Type 7 (Denverton) modules. It comes with an ATX form factor (305 x 244 mm²) and forms a turnkey server development platform together with the module. It supports, for example, 32
Workload / Performance / Workload VALUE - SIZE-OPTIMIZED PCIe lanes fan out into 7 PCIe slots, 4x USB 3.0, 2x SATA3, COMe-cDV7 2x RS232, GPIO and various adapter cards to support 4x 10 Intel Atom® C3000 GbE in different connectivity flavors. (Denverton)
FEATURE COMe-cDV7 COMe-bDV7 COMe-bBD7 FUTURE COMe Type 7 MODULE
Positioning Low power - Value level, space Low power - Value level Performance level Performance level optimized Memory Up to 2x 32 GByte DDR4 up 2x 32 GByte DDR4 up to 2400 2x 32 GByte DDR4 up to 2400 2x 32 GByte DDR4 up to 2933 to 2400 MT/s – max. 64 GByte MT/s – max. 64 GByte MT/s – max. 64 GByte MT/s – max. 64 GByte 4x 32 GByte DDR4 up to 2133 4x 32 GByte DDR4 up to 2666 MT/s – max. 128 GByte MT/s – max. 128 GByte LAN 1x GbE Base-T 1x GbE Base-T 1x GbE Base-T 1x GbE Base-T Up to 4x 10G-KR Up to 4x 10 G-KR 2x 10G-KR 4x 10G-KR PCIe max. 14x PCIe Gen 3.0 Max. 14x PCIe Gen 3.0 32x PCIe lanes: 32x PCIe lanes: 8x PCIe Gen 2.0 16x PCIe Gen 3.0 24x PCIe Gen 3.0 16x PCIe Gen 4.0 USB max. 4x USB 3.0/2.0 Max. 4x USB 3.0/2.0 4x USB 3.0/2.0 4x USB 3.1/2.0 SATA max. 2x SATA Gen3 Max. 2x SATA Gen3 2x SATA Gen3 2x SATA Gen3 Onboard eMMC 5.1 eMMC 5.1 SSD via SATA NVMe via PCIe x1 storage Ind. temp SKUs Some ind. temp SKUs available Some ind. temp SKUs available Some ind. temp SKUs available Some ind. temp SKUs available
// COM Express® Type 7 - Module Comparison
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 7 COM-HPC™ The performance level and memory capacity matches COM-HPC™ will allow developers to keep pace with the the application requirements – processor TDP up to ultra-high HPC requirements of the future. However, as 60 W – memory capacity up to 128 GByte they start becoming available early next year, COM-HPC™ A smaller footprint and thermal limit is necessary modules will complement rather than compete with COM Extending the longevity of an existing COM Express® Express® 7 in the market: Based on the latest generation solution to save investment and ensure continuity of Intel server-class processors, COM-HPC™ solutions There’s a low to medium budget consideration will be aimed at satisfying more power-hungry applica- tions (CPU TDP up to 150 W, overall power envelope up to COM-HPC™ is more likely to come up trumps when: 250 – 300 W) compared to Type 7. They will also address implementations where more features and functions are Processor power is required beyond 60 W TDP required. However, the additional performance and Memory capacity must go beyond the limit of 128 GByte feature-sets will command a higher entry level price. Faster interfaces such as USB 4.0, PCIe Gen 4/5 or 25 Gbit Ethernet are required To accommodate the above, a larger footprint and price level is accepted TYPICAL USE CASES: COM-HPC™
Multiple PCIe lanes combined with High-Speed LAN KONTRON: VALUE ADDED connectivity and PCIe x16 ports for high performance Kontron manufactures and supplies one of the industry’s GPGPUs/FPGAs: largest globally available ranges of off-the-shelf embed- AI – machine learning + camera inspection ded products including Boards, SBCs, and COMs. These Test & Measurement are designed and developed in response to market and Autonomous driving & Truck Fleet control technological developments as well as direct feedback Data logger from OEM partners. As testimony to the quality and high Automotive test equipment performance of Kontrons range of COM and board level products many of these are frequently specified in the High performance multi-core processors and multi- company’s own range of OEM-category Systems. LAN support up to 40G/100G Ethernet: 5G RAN platforms All standard and customized products are backed by the Network appliances company’s global services and support network. This Datacenter switching with high speed uplinks includes technical support and product training as well as the benefit of extended product lifecycle management Processing power combined with High-Speed for ensuring product longevity – Kontrons priority access Ethernet connectivity: to the latest processor and embedded component tech- Surface inspection nology from the world’s major manufacturers is a major Assembly control advantage to customers when it comes to optimizing Pattern recognition product investment. Customers are also able to take Robot control advantage of the company’s portfolio of middleware and software services when designing and launching IoT solutions.
Making the right choice In addition, Kontron can offer all customers - developers, The introduction of the new COM-HPC™ standard allows System Integrator and OEMs - comprehensive value added a new technology approach for many applications in the services. These include the provision of full Design-in embedded landscape. However, it can also create some Services as well as Custom Carrier Boards for facilitating uncertainty. So, which is the right choice – COM Express® the implementation of part or fully customized embedded or COM-HPC™? modules for specific applications. The company’s design excellence results from over 35 years of embedded Always bear in mind that COM Express® and COM-HPC™ computing experience. Extensive simulations, product are complementary standards and clearly differentiated validation and release tests guarantee product reliability with respect to performance, overall feature sets and under all operating conditions. In production, stringent price level. COM Express® is most probably the right quality assurance is undertaken using state-of-art platform when: manufacturing facilities and well-proven test strategies.
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 8 SUMMARY As a global embedded computer solutions manufacturer, COM Express®, the successful and worldwide leading Kontron is able to support all embedded COM needs - standard for Computer-on-Modules since 2005, will including those of the new rapidly emerging ultra-high continue to provide a reliable and long-lasting service performance computing era. This is reinforced by the for traditional embedded industrial computing demands. company’s long history in the industry standardization Furthermore, the already successful COM Express® Type of COM platforms. An extensive range of IoT COM plat- 7 will prove to be an even more popular choice for many forms to match any performance, space, thermal, and types of HPC applications in the years to come. communications requirement is available.
However, the emerging COM-HPC™ standard was born out of necessity. It will bring a whole new dimension to COM Express® as well as future-proof the concept of standardized modular embedded computing. The new For more information about Kontron HPC embedded standard offers almost limitless potential for scalability, solutions visit compute performance, connectivity, and high speed https://www.kontron.com/products/boards-and- communications. Embedded solutions developers and standard-form-factors/com-hpc OEMs will have the peace of mind of knowing standardized COMs can meet any requirement – today and tomorrow.
UP TO 15 W UP TO 35 W UP TO 80 W UP TO 120-150 W UP TO 250-300 W
// Innovative IoT Platforms to match different Performance, Space & Thermal Requirements
WHITE PAPER // www.kontron.com // 9 Tel.: Germany 86156 Augsburg, Lise-Meitner-Str. 3-5 countries. Intel and Atom are registered trademarks of Intel Corporationin the U.S. andother the latestIoT technologies, helpingdevelopers deliver first-in-market solutions. Close collaboration with Intel and each other enables Alliance members to innovate with able solutions that accelerate deployment of intelligent devices and end-to-end analytics. companies of the Intel® Internetof Things Solutions Alliance provide scalable,interoper From modular components to market-ready systems, Intel and the 400+global member About the Intel® Internetof Things Solutions Alliance For more information, please visit: www.kontron.com cost of ownership, product longevity and the best fully integratedapplicationsoverall. industries. As aresult, customersbenefit from accelerated time-to-market, reduced total technologies, Kontron provides secure andinnovative applications for a variety of products and tailor-made solutionsbasedonhighly reliable state-of-the-art embedded and services for Internetof Things (IoT) andIndustry 4.0applications. With itsstandard technology group S&T, Kontron offers a combined portfolio of secure hardware, middleware Kontron isaglobal leader inIoT/Embedded Computing Technology (ECT). As apartof About Kontron –Member of the S&T Group www.kontron.com [email protected] Fax: KONTRON S&T AG KONTRON GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS GLOBAL + + 49 821 4086-0 49 821 49 821 4086-111 49 821
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