ChannelLife Australia - Industry insider news for technology resellers
Story image
congatec announces three new Server-on-Module families
Tue, 1st Mar 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Edge computing and embedded technology vendor congatec has announced three new Server-on-Module families running alongside the launch of its new Intel Xeon D processor family.

Additionally, congatec notes the release of these products ushers in a new world-first server module, x86-based COM-HPC.

The company says the new COM-HPC Server modules in Size E and Size D, and the COM Express Type 7 modules will fast-track the next generation of real-time microserver workloads in rugged environments and extended temperature ranges.

Improvements include up to 20 cores, RAM to up to 1 TB, double throughput per PCIe lanes to Gen 4 speed, and up to 100 GbE connectivity and TCC/TSN support.

Target applications include industrial workload consolidation servers for automation, robotics and medical backend imaging, and outdoor servers for utilities and critical infrastructures, such as smart grids for oil, gas and electricity, and rail and communication networks.

Target applications also include vision-enabled applications such as autonomous vehicles and video infrastructures for safety and security.

“The launch of our massive workload accelerating Intel Xeon D processor based COM-HPC Server-on-Modules is a milestone for the various edge server industries in three respects,” congatec director of product management, Martin Danzer explains.

“First, Intel Xeon D processor-based Server-on-Modules now target not only standard industrial environments but also outdoor and in-vehicle applications due to the extended temperature range support.

“Second, the worldwide first x86 COM-HPC Server-on-Modules extend the available number of cores for the first time to 20 and with up to 8 RAM sockets enable massively more memory bandwidth, which is essential for server workloads.

“Third, these server modules have real-time capabilities both with respect to the processor cores and TCC/TSN enabled real-time Ethernet.

“This is a combination that many OEMs have been eagerly waiting for.

In addition to bandwidth and performance improvements, congatec says it plans long-term availability of up to ten years for its three new Server-on-Module families.

The company adds this will significantly extend the lifecycle of next-gen rugged edge server designs compared to common servers.

The module families also include a comprehensive server-grade feature set. This contains powerful hardware security features such as Intel Boot Guard and Intel Total Memory Encryption for mission-critical designs, including Multi-Tenant (Intel TME-MT) and Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX).

Additionally, the servers benefit AI applications with built-in hardware acceleration, including AVX-512 and VNNI.

Furthermore, the processor modules integrate the Intel Resource Director Technology (Intel RDT) to enable the best RAS capabilities and support remote hardware management features such as IPMI and redfish.

The new modules will become available in a High Core Count (HCC) and a Low Core Count (LCC) variant featuring different Intel Xeon D processor series types.

The conga-HPC/sILH COM-HPC Server Size E modules will be equipped with five different Intel Xeon D-2700 processors with a choice of 4 to 20 cores, 8 DIMM sockets for up to 1 TByte of 2933 MT/s fast DDR4 memory with ECC, 32x PCIe Gen 4 and 16x PCIe Gen 3 as well as 100 GbE throughput plus real-time capable 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet with TSN and TCC support at a processor base power of 65 to 118 Watt.

The COM-HPC Server Size D and COM Express Type 7 modules will come with five different Intel Xeon D-1700 processors with a choice of 4 to 10 cores. While the conga-B7Xl COM Express Server-on-Module supports up to 128 GB DDR4 2666 MT/s RAM via up to 3 SODIMM sockets, the conga-HPC/sILL COM-HPC Server Size D module offers 4 DIMM sockets for up to 256 GB of 2933 MT/s fast DDR4 RAM.

In addition, both module families offer 16x PCIe Gen 4 and 16x PCIe Gen 3 lanes. They provide up to 100 GbE throughput and TSN TCC support via 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet at a processor base power of 40 to 67 Watt for fast networking.