As a manufacturer of innovative and scalable products for embedded computing and IIoT, Kontron is continuously developing these on the basis of the latest semiconductor technology. The close partnership with processor manufacturers such as Intel enables the German manufacturer to integrate these technologies into single-board computers, computer-on-modules and industrial PCs at a very early stage. This means that ready-to-use products are available shortly after the processor becomes available - including industrial-grade versions.

Development leap in processor architecture

Products based on the 11th generation Intel Core i processors are already fully available. In addition to low-end processors such as the Intel Atom series and server processors from the Intel Xeon series, these mid-range processors are a key focus of the US provider's portfolio. They are available in many scalings and are subject to further development, which in some cases also takes place in technological steps. One such step is the switch to the "Tiger Lake" microarchitecture. First announced at the end of 2020, this uses a new manufacturing process with a structure width of 10 nm instead of the previous 14 nm. As a result, these processors are significantly superior to their predecessor products both in terms of possible clock frequencies (up to 4.8 GHz) and energy efficiency.

Intel offers these processors in numerous variants. As with some predecessor types, the letters U and H indicate the main types. Tiger Lake U is a single-chip solution, while Tiger Lake H uses two separate chips in one housing. The separate PCH chip provides 30 programmable high-speed I/O lanes as a hub in addition to the 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes. Tiger Lake H offers several fast SSD and USB interfaces, as well as 2.5 Gb Ethernet and WiFi 6E Gigabit WLAN. Unlike previous architectures, the Thermal Design Power (TDP), on the basis of which the cooling and power supply are designed, can be set within certain ranges. It is 15 to 25 W for Tiger Lake U and 25 to 45 W for the more powerful Tiger Lake H processors.

Real-time capability as standard

"Pure data processing performance and transmission bandwidth on the network lines are not the only criteria for the suitability of computer hardware in industrial applications," says Peter Müller, Vice President Product Center Boards & Modules at Kontron. Especially in mechanical engineering, it is often a matter of synchronizing interconnected and interdependent fast processes. Here, it is essential that data transmission takes place without excessive latency, i.e. in real time. It is equally important that the arrival of the transmitted data always remains predictable, i.e. deterministic. The 11th generation offers both Intel Time Coordinated Computing (Intel TCC) and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) in the standard. These extensions to Ethernet to include real-time capability enable the previously separate networks for IT and OT to be merged without additional costs.

The KBox-C-104-TGL industrial computers in box PC format improve determinism in real-time applications with integrated TSN and TCC functionality. © Kontron

The current Intel processors are particularly suitable for the development of safety-related programmable controllers. This means that not only a dedicated processor core can be reserved for safety-related applications. The Intel Functional Safety Essential Design Package (Intel FSEDP) provides customers with the technical documentation for the development and certification of safety-critical platforms in accordance with functional safety standards.

With the 11th processor generation, PCIe 3.0 and a TSN-capable Ethernet controller, the Kontron COM Express module in the Compact form factor advances into a new performance class without unduly increasing power consumption. It is equipped with a Tiger Lake U single-chip processor with two or four cores. These CPUs already have an instruction set for vectorized neural networks.

In the Basic form factor of the COM Express modules, these processors with up to eight computing cores ensure suitability for high-end applications with high bandwidth. These are the two-chip Tiger Lake H solutions, which are supported by Intel Iris Xe Graphics and Intel Deep Learning Boost for increased AI performance and integrated TSN and TCC functionality.

Tiger performance on 3.5 inches

The 3.5" SBC-TGL is a 3.5" single-board computer based on the 11th generation Core i processors of the U series and Celeron 6000 series. At Kontron, this is called Tiger Lake UP3. It is also equipped with a next-generation Intel Iris Xe graphics unit. The resulting processor, graphics and AI performance makes it ideal for processing-intensive applications such as AI or deep learning.

Its outstanding suitability for computer vision applications and deterministic computing with low latency makes it interesting for industrial applications. The board also supports 8K video streaming at 60 frames per second (fps). With the help of the B2B interface, four independent displays can be controlled simultaneously via DP with a resolution of 4K at 60 fps. The TDP can be configured in the BIOS. This makes it possible to create systems that can be adjusted to the customer's individual usage profiles in terms of cooling requirements. Both the COM Express modules and the 3.5" SBC-TGL are available in variants with an extended temperature range of -40 to 85 °C.

Kontron also installs these processors in the new generation of its high-end industrial computers in box PC format, exclusively in the more powerful two-chip Tiger Lake H version. Equipped with Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 CPUs with up to eight cores, the devices in the KBox C-104-TGL family with integrated TSN and Intel TCC functionality are particularly suitable for demanding edge workloads and high-end applications with high bandwidth.

Kontron has developed the KBox A-151-TGL industrial PC based on the same processors for particularly data-intensive IoT edge and AI applications. It has an expansion slot on the front (I/O door), which can be used to add additional functionalities such as fieldbuses or interfaces such as graphics, serial or digital I/Os and Ethernet. The system can optionally be supplemented with 4G/5G or WiFi 6 connectivity.

Extended future security

The long-term availability of hardware is just as important for industrial users as technical suitability features. Both Intel as a processor manufacturer and Kontron guarantee this. "We can guarantee the availability of functionally equivalent products with performance data that grows over time over very long periods," says Peter Müller. "This allows us to offer our customers long-term future security."