Embedded world 2022: Modules and IoT edge computing

Computer-on-modules (COMs), or system-on-modules (SOMs), were on full display at embedded world in Nuremberg, June 21–23. COMs, SOMs, or server-on-modules are complete embedded computers on one circuit board, packed with everything needed for a computer system: processor, controllers, memory, interfaces, operating system, and other peripherals. These modules are used in a range of applications, including industrial automation, robotics, automotive, aerospace and defense, consumer, and medical.

The global computer-on-module market is projected to reach $1.6 billion by 2027, according to Allied Market Research. Advances in technology like artificial intelligence, which are making hardware design more complex coupled with increasing demand for smaller solutions, are driving the growth for these modules, particularly in consumer electronics and industrial automation industries, according to the market researcher.

Also on display at embedded world are a host of IoT modules. Like COMs or SOMs, these preconfigured GNSS and cellular modules are used to reduce hardware design complexity, thus speeding up development time and time to market.

Here is a sampling of modules designed to simplify hardware design in a range of applications.

IoT modules

u-blox has claimed the industry’s first AWS IoT ExpressLink cellular module, designed to make it easier to develop secure IoT solutions with AWS cloud services. The SARA-R510AWS module, a new variant of the globally certified SARA-R5 LTE-M cellular module series, targets a variety of applications including asset tracking, smart farming, sensor monitoring, and connected medical equipment.

The SARA-R510AWS module helps product developers reduce product development time and effort as well as time to market. Running validated AWS IoT ExpressLink firmware, the SARA-R510AWS minimizes integration efforts by handling key steps required to access the AWS cloud, such as networking, authentication, and secure data transfer. It connects to the AWS cloud with only two dedicated AT commands.

Security features include a pre-provisioned hardware-based root of trust, secure boot, and secure storage, as well as encrypted communication to and from the cloud. This enables secure over-the-air updates of the host processor and the module’s communication firmware.

Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global IoT solutions provider, has released several new products, highlighted at embedded world. They include the LC29H dual-band multi-constellation GNSS module for high-precision positioning at the centimeter and decimeter levels, particularly important in IoT applications; the BG773A-GL ultra-compact LTE Cat M1, NB1, and NB2 module with integrated SIM (iSIM) support; and the LC76G single-band compact GNSS module.

The LC29H is built on the Airoha AG3335 platform, is available in multiple variants, and optionally integrates RTK and DR technologies. These modules are suited for autonomous lawn mowers, drones, precision agriculture, micro-mobility scooters, and delivery robots as well as other industrial and autonomous applications.

How it works: The LC29H concurrently receives and processes signals from all constellations (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS) and, with the support of SBAS, maximizes satellite signal availability, said Quectel. The module supports L1 and L5 dual-band signal reception, with the dual-band significantly mitigating the multipath effect experienced near high-rise buildings or in deep urban canyons, added the company.

The LC29H is available in four product variants, each addressing different applications. The LC29H(EA) targets agricultural drones as well as electricity power detection terminals and can improve the anti-interference capability of complex systems. The LC29H(BA) is suited to agricultural machinery and specialized vehicles, and the LC29H(DA) can enable centimeter-level accuracy in connected lawn mowers and safety helmets.

Some versions contain six-axis IMU inertial sensors (three-axis accelerometer + three-axis gyroscope) and integrate RTK and DR positioning algorithms, which allows for continuous lane-level accurate positioning when the satellite signal is partially or completely blocked, such as underground parking lots, tunnels, urban canyons, or forests.

The modules are housed in an LCC form factor in an industry-standard size of 12.2 × 16.0 × 2.5 mm. They can be bundled with Quectel’s off-the-shelf and customized GNSS antennas.

The new BG773A-GL ultra-compact LTE Cat M1, NB1, and NB2 module with iSIM support is said to provide flexibility and simplicity for integrators and IoT service providers because it enables a device with a single SKU number to have the right connectivity to support global requirements.

The module also features ultra-low power consumption thanks to the MIPS 5150 processor and integrated RAM and flash, which help reduce current consumption to low levels in various modes, including power-saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX). It also comes with integrated Secure Element (iSE), which is essential for iSIM to enable the best available connectivity at the point of deployment, said the company. The module will be commercially available from mid-July 2022.

The module is housed in an ultra-compact SMT form factor, measuring 4.9 × 12.9 × 1.9 mm. It comes with industry-standard interfaces and a range of functionalities to support a variety of IoT applications, such as wireless POS, smart metering, tracking, and wearable devices.

The LC76G single-band GNSS module with accurate location performance and ultra-low power consumption is based on the Airoha AG3352 platform. The module can concurrently receive and process signals from all constellations (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS) and, with the support of SBAS (like the LC29H), increases the number of visible satellites and enhances positioning accuracy. The LC76G module can receive signals from up to 47 satellites and achieve 1.5-meter (CEP50 open-sky) positioning accuracy, which is a 40% improvement over previous generations of devices.

The LC76G is available in cost-optimized and low-power versions. The low-power version consumes less than 9 mA @ 3 V with all four constellations enabled, delivering a 72% reduction in power required than previously possible, said the company. This makes the module suited for battery-operated devices such as wearable personal trackers, wildlife and livestock tracking, toll tags, portable container trackers, and shared mobility and low-cost asset trackers.

The LC76G features an internal SAW filter and integrated LNA, can be connected directly to a passive patch antenna, and provides filtering against unwanted interference. Other features include integrated A-GNSS technology EPO and EASY (Embedded Assist System), which are available for each constellation. The module is housed in an LCC form factor and measures 10.1 × 9.7 × 2.4 mm.

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SOMs and COMs

Digi International is showcasing a range of its new solutions and devices for medical, transportation, agriculture, and industrial applications. This include a first look at the company’s Digi ConnectCore MP1 SOMs, Digi ConnectCore Voice Control software, and Digi XBee Intelligent Edge Controller. Digi demoed its wireless IoT solution for smart agriculture with a simulation of a complete ecosystem that can centrally manage multiple farms.

Here are a few more details about the new products. The Digi ConnectCore MP1 family claims the industry’s smallest STM32MP1 SOM that integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and wired connectivity. It also features its Connected Device platform and development tools and design support.

The Digi ConnectCore Voice Control is an advanced voice-control software solution that is designed for the ConnectCore family of SOMs. It is a fully integrated, ready-to-use software solution that enables developers to design a voice-based human-machine interface (HMI) to control device operations using speech. It provides voice processing on edge devices (including support for 30 languages and a 60,000-word vocabulary) and does not require cloud connectivity. That reduces connectivity costs and data-privacy concerns while providing response times of less than 100 ms, said Digi.

The Digi XBee Intelligent Edge Controller (IEC) delivers a networking architecture to close the gap between field devices and the cloud and provides asset monitoring and control, said Digi. In combination with Digi X-ON cloud, the Digi XBee IEC helps companies monitor sensors or remote-control assets over long-range, low-power, wide-area networks, including LoRaWAN, CAT-M1, and NB-IoT. Industrial devices can be monitored with sub-second latency with alarms and data wirelessly delivered through the Digi X-ON cloud, said the company.

Digi will also preview its upcoming Digi ConnectCore 93, which includes NXP’s i.MX 93 system-on-chip. Digi is one of six Early Access Partners for the April 2023 release.

SolidRun, a developer and manufacturer of high-performance SOM solutions, single-board computers, and network edge solutions, is launching new SOMs based on the RZ/G2 family of system-on-chips from Renesas Electronics. Target applications for the first RZ/G2LC SOM include AI-enhanced HMI applications, industrial and building automation, video surveillance, and IoT solutions.

The RZ/G2LC SOM supplies all necessary power, memory, and I/O subsystems for fast development. It leverages the RZ/G2LC MPU’s 64-bit Cortex-A55 processor cores, which can deliver 20% greater processing power over conventional Cortex-A53 core processors running at the same frequency, and offers high-capability image processing with an integrated Arm Mali-G31 3D GPU. The embedded GPU also adds value with its advanced AI inference execution processing capabilities, which clock in nearly 6× faster than what is possible with Cortex-A53 processor-equipped devices, said SolidRun.

Together, the embedded GPU, AI inference capabilities, and hardware H.264 codec, with an embedded camera and display interface and small, 47 × 30-mm footprint, make the SOM well suited for applications such as intercoms, video doorbells, network cameras, and handheld POS systems.

This SOM offers pin-to-pin compatibility with SolidRun’s NXP i.MX8 Mini SOM, and because it is pin-to-pin–compatible, customers can pair the new RZ/G2 SOM with the Hummingboard Pulse carrier board for expedited prototyping and product development. The RZ/G2LC SOM is available today. Pricing starts at $67 and it can be ordered at www.solid-run.com.

Congatec GmbH made several key announcements at embedded world, including its entry into the functional safety (FuSa) arena by now qualifying embedded x86 multicore COM platforms for certification with FuSa standards, including IEC 61508 and ISO 13849. The company also launched five new COM-HPC Server Size D (160 × 160 mm) modules with Intel Xeon D-2700 processors and seven new 12th Gen Intel Core processor-based COM-HPC and COM Express COMs.

The COM-HPC Server Size D modules indicate the demand for edge-server performance in a rugged small-form factor that is outdoor-capable, said the company. In addition, the Intel Xeon D-2700 processors, with up to 20 cores, support real-time mixed-critical applications.

Although the number of supported DRAM modules is cut from eight to four bars, compared with the larger (200 × 160 mm) COM-HPC Server Size E modules, the COM-HPC Server Size D modules provide 512 GB of DDR4 RAM at 2,933 MT/s. By limiting the RAM, the module size can be reduced by 20% compared with Size E, said congatec. Target applications of the new Intel Xeon D-2700 processor-based COM-HPC modules are embedded, space-constrained edge servers with high data throughput but less memory-intensive workloads. These include IIoT-networked real-time environments of smart factories and critical infrastructures.

The five new conga-HPC/sILH server-on-modules with Intel Xeon D-2700 series processors extend congatec’s existing COM-HPC Server Size D product family with Intel Xeon D-1700 processors. The new launch doubles the number of cores, from up to 10 to up to 20, and extends memory support from up to three to up to four DDR4 RAM channels, with up to 512 GB at 2,933 MT/s.

They feature 32× PCIe Gen 4 lanes, 16× PCIe Gen 3 lanes for dedicated controllers, computing accelerator cards, and NVMe storage media in rugged edge-server installations. For real-time networking, the SOMs include a 1× 2.5 GbE with TSN and TCC support in addition to an extended Ethernet bandwidth of 100 Gb in various configurations, including 1× 100 GbE, 2× 50 GbE, 4× 25 GbE, and several other configurations via KR or SFI interfaces. Other interfaces include 4× USB 3.1 and 4× USB 2.0. For non-volatile storage, the modules optionally support an integrated eMMC 5.1 with up to 128-GB capacity as well as 2× SATA III interfaces. The new application-ready COM-HPC server-on-modules come with comprehensive board support packages for Windows, Linux, and VxWorks.

The seven new, more power-efficient COM-HPC and COM Express COMs based on the 12th Generation Intel Core IOTG mobile processors (formerly codenamed Alder Lake) feature the Intel hybrid architecture with its mix of performance cores (P-cores) and efficient cores (E‑cores). These processor variants consume just 15- to 28-W base power, which enables engineers to use them in passively cooled embedded and edge computing platforms, eliminating the need for other cooling options while improving the MTBF of system designs, said congatec.

Target industrial markets for the new COMs with Intel Core i7/5/3 and Celeron processors are passively cooled computing systems that need more performance. This includes edge computers and IoT gateways incorporating multiple virtual machines for smart factories and process automation, AI-based quality inspection and industrial vision, real-time collaborative robotics, and autonomous logistics vehicles for warehousing and shipping.

The conga-HPC/cALP COM-HPC Client Size A modules (95 × 120 mm) and the conga-TC670 COM Express Compact Type 6 modules (95 × 95 mm) are available with six energy-efficient 12th Gen Intel Core processors as well as a cost-optimized Celeron processor. Both module families support up to 64-GB ultra-fast DDR5 SO-DIMM memory with 4,800 MT/s. They provide graphics support for up to four independent displays and up to 8k resolution thanks to the integrated Intel Iris X^e graphics with the Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, as well as the Intel UHD graphics with Intel Core i3 and Intel Celeron.

The COM-HPC modules support up to 16 PCIe Gen 4 and eight PCIe Gen 3 lanes, as well as up to 2× Thunderbolt. The COM Express variants feature up to eight PCIe Gen 4 and eight PCIe Gen 3 lanes. Both support an optional and ultra-fast NVMe SSD. Additional storage media can be connected via 2× SATA Gen 3. For networking, the COM-HPC module offers 2× 2.5 GbE, while the COM Express module provides 1× 2.5 GbE. Both support TSN. Sound is provided via SoundWire, HDO, or I2S in the COM-HPC version and HDA on the COM Express modules.

Board support packages are provided for all leading RTOSes, including hypervisor support from real-time systems as well as Linux, Windows, and Android.

The COM‑HPC Client and COM Express Type 6 modules also feature dedicated AI engines supporting Windows ML, Intel OpenVINO toolkit, and Chrome Cross ML. The different AI workloads can be delegated to the P-cores, E-cores, and the GPU execution units to “process even the most compute-intensive edge AI tasks,” said congatec.

Congatec also announced that it is making big investments in functional safety, driven by a growing demand for functionally safe embedded computing platforms in a range of new applications such as industrial machinery, collaborative robotics, and autonomous vehicles on shopfloors, rails, and roads. The company is now qualifying embedded x86 multicore platforms for certification with FuSa standards, including IEC 61508 and ISO 13849.

“OEMs who utilize a computer-on-module as an application-ready building block — including relevant software components such as bootloader, hypervisor, and BSP — that is already certifiable for functional safety can save a lot of time and money,” said congatec CTO Konrad Garhammer in a statement. “They will then only need to qualify the customer-specific carrier board and related adaptations for certification.”

The company’s first FuSa-prepared solution is the COM Express Mini module conga-MA7, based on the FuSa certified Intel Atom x6000 E processor. To qualify COMs for safe operation, all components as well as the entire BSP need to be prepared for FuSa certification, including safety manuals and other documentation, said congatec. In addition, organizational processes and documents created during development and testing — such as FMEDA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis) as well as the verification and validation (V&V) process — have to be brought in line with the certification requirements and audited by external assessors, added the company.

Nitin Dahad, editor-in-chief of embedded.com, speaks with Christian Eder, marketing director of congatec and chairman of the PICMG COM-HPC committee, at embedded world 2022, about the company’s new functional-safety strategy and new product announcements.

IoT edge computing

Fibocom, a global provider of IoT wireless solutions and wireless communication modules, announced its collaboration with Aetina Corporation, a provider of high-performance GPGPU and edge AI computing solutions, to bring 5G Release 16 capabilities to Aetina’s AI edge computing platform. The partnership leverages Fibocom’s 5G R16-compliant FM160-EAU module and Aetina’s AN810-XNX edge AI computer, designed with the Nvidia Jetson NX platform, to deliver 5G connectivity and edge AI to applications such as robotics, drones, industrial IoT, and health care.

The FM160-EAU is a high-performance 5G M.2 module supporting NR Carrier Aggregation (CA), which delivers fast speed, extended coverage, higher throughput, and increased capacity.

“Embedded in Aetina’s AN810-XNX AI edge computing platform, FM160-EAU delivers enhanced 5G R16 capabilities to the edge, allowing businesses and industry to benefit from intelligent and autonomous decision-making,” said Fibocom. The combination of AI and IoT (also known as AIoT) opens up “new possibilities for an era of smarter, faster decision-making.”

Kontron, a member of the S&T Group, is showcasing a new industrial computer in a box PC format. The KBox A-151-TGL, based on 11th Gen Intel Core or Celeron processors, delivers enough performance for demanding IoT edge or AI applications, said the company. It is specifically designed for IoT gateway applications in industrial environments.

The KBox A-151-TGL is based on an 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4E, i5-1145GRE/i5-1145G7, an i7-1185GRE/i7-1185G7E, or the Intel Celeron processor 6305E with up to four processing cores and 4.4 GHz (burst) each, as well as a memory expansion up to 64 GB. The Core i7 and Core i5 processors deliver the high-end Intel Iris X^e graphics with 96 execution units.

The industrial computer also provides two DisplayPorts and two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, including a 2.5-GbE interface with TSN functionality, as well as four USB 3.2 and two RS232/422/485 interfaces. Three M.2 expansion slots can be used to integrate fieldbuses and wireless technology such as 4G/5G or Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, in addition to the integration of NVMe SSDs. The majority of system expansions are accessible via the new expansion slot (I/O Door) on the front of the system, said Kontron.

The KBox A-151-TGL is a fanless design and can be operated in the range of 0˚C to 50˚C. An optional extended range is available from –40˚C to 65˚C. The system can be integrated into industrial environments via DIN rail mounting or wall mounting.