Mini-ITX boards feature powerful graphics & low TDP

23rd July 2015

congatec

Barney Scott

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Datasheet

congatec has announced the expansion of its industrial-grade Mini-ITX motherboard portfolio with two highly efficient low-power conga-IGX variants that are based on the Gen 2 AMD Embedded G-Series SoC processor (codenamed "Steppe Eagle") and feature powerful SoC integrated AMD Radeon graphics. The low-power motherboards are scalable with a TDP ranging between 5 and 15W max.

The powerful AMD Radeon graphics offers, among other benefits, support for up to two independent displays and up to 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution. A particularly efficient feature is the configurable TDP, which makes it possible to optimise the cooling, the power supply and the entire system costs depending on the specific application.

Like all other Mini-ITX motherboards from congatec, the Gen 2 AMD Embedded G-Series SoC processor boards demonstrate their industrial-grade design, from component selection and PCB layout for maximum reliability; support for I/O, IoT, drivers and design-in; to flexible batch sizes and long-term availability, which in the case of the conga-IGX Mini-ITX boards is 7 years.

The Mini-ITX motherboards are used primarily in applications that require powerful graphics for cost-efficient low-power devices. congatec expects the boards to address applications in a broad range of computing sectors such as retail, digital signage and gaming as well as medical imaging, vision systems and industrial automation.

The Gen 2 AMD Embedded G-Series SoC processor boards are available as a powerful 2.2GHz dual-core variant (10/15W max. configurable TDP) or a four 1.2GHz quad-core platform (5/7W max. configurable TDP) that is optimised for multiprocessing. Thanks to the integrated next-gen AMD Radeon R5E/R3E graphics core, the boards also offer high-performance 4K graphics support including DirectX11.1 and OpenGL 4.2.

Up to two displays can be controlled independently via DisplayPort 1.2, DVI or LVDS. The boards further support OpenCL 1.2, which enables the GPU to process compute-intensive parallel tasks faster and more efficiently than the CPU. Board expansion options include a PCIe four Gen 2.0 slot, one Mini PCIe, two USB 3.0, and six USB 2.0. A special socket for commercially available USB sticks enables inexpensive and easy expansion of applications to add WLAN, mobile connectivity or security mechanisms (dongles)

For the realisation of IoT connectivity, the boards provide two Gigabit LAN. Two serial ports plus PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard underline the industrial-grade standard of the conga-IGX boards. Stereo audio inputs and outputs complete the feature set.