Eight cores for heterogeneous edge computing

congatec is offering the new Zen 2 based processor generation, which complements V1000 processor technology with six and eight core versions, on COM Express Compact modules.

As the trend towards more IIoT connectivity and digitisation continues, embedded systems must handle a growing number of tasks. Additional tasks include the collection of application data that needs to be transcoded, and sometimes analysed locally using artificial intelligence (AI).

In parallel, data must be exchanged with customers’ enterprise clouds and other OEM apps, and this communication must be highly secure, because new pay-per-use models turn the devices, machines, and systems into an OEM revenue source that needs to be safeguarded. Embedded systems are therefore constantly monitored to preempt malicious attacks. All this requires many processes to run in parallel, which is why every additional core in an embedded system is very welcome, since it can then also be assigned dedicated tasks using real-time capable hypervisor technology.

As an add-on to V1000 processor technology, the new AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors set completely new standards, making it possible to deliver COM Express Type 6 modules with eight-core processors and 16 threads for the very first time. What is more, the TDP scales up to 54W, and down to as little as ten watts.

This is crucial for many fanless embedded systems and subsequently creates both an immense performance leap and significantly increased multi-tasking capacities. With the new AMD Embedded Ryzen V2000 series, users benefit from double the processing power per watt, approximately 15% more instructions per clock (IPC), and twice as many cores compared to the previous generation.

The new 7 nm Zen 2 microarchitecture

These significant performance gains over the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processors are made possible by the new Zen 2 processor architecture, which is now manufactured in 7nm technology. AMD has retained many innovations of the first Zen microarchitecture: for instance, the CPU Core Complex (CCX) combining up to four cores. Within a CCX, each core can access the shared L2 and L3 cache with the same low latency.

However, compared to the previous V1000 series, AMD has reportedly doubled the memory from 2MB to 4MB L2 cache and 8 MB per CCX for the L3 cache. While the L1 cache has not increased in size, bandwidth was doubled from 16 to 32 Kbytes throughput per clock cycle. Floating-point bandwidth, too, was doubled from 128 to 256 bits, which significantly speeds up the processing of AVX2 instructions, for instance.

One effect of this is a 15% increase in the IPC rate. Combined with the smaller manufacturing technology, which has shrunk from 14 to 7nm, these modifications have resulted in twice as much multi-thread performance per watt and up to 30% higher single-thread performance.

Current benchmarks

AMD has used renowned benchmarks to prove the performance of its AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors. The AMD Ryzen V2718 processor with a nominal TDP of 15W, eight cores and a base clock rate of 1.7GHz was compared with the six core Intel Core i7 10710U processor with a base clock rate of 1.6GHz and the quad-core Intel Core i7 10510U processor with a nominal clock rate of 1.8GHz. Both are 10th generation Intel Core processors and have a TDP of 15W.

While the six and four core Intel Core processors are on par with the AMD Ryzen V2000 in single-thread performance, the picture shifts significantly when it comes to multi-core performance. Here, the AMD Embedded Ryzen V2000 processor claims to be more than twice as fast as the quad-core i7 processor, and it also has a clear lead of around 33% over the hexa-core i7.

The pendulum reportedly swings in favor of the AMD Ryzen V2000 processor in terms of graphics performance, too. Compared to both Intel Core i7 processors, it scores more than twice as high in the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. Even when pitched against a processor with a much higher TDP, like the six core Intel Core i7 9750H processor with a TDP of 45W and 2.6GHz base clock rate, the Intel Ryzen V2000 impresses with outstanding performance. It offers an almost identical single-thread performance, but about 45% more multi-thread and almost 40% more graphics performance.

More graphics performance

Next to the pure computing power, the graphics performance is truly impressive. The AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics integrated in the powerful AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoC provides up to 7 GPU processing units.

The GPU performance of the integrated Radeon graphics, which is based on the 5th generation GCN architecture and traditionally high at AMD, has increased by 40% compared to the predecessor. It, too, benefits from the more energy efficient 7 nm technology and at 1.6GHz, its operating clock rate is also 300MHz faster.

4k UHD support

The AMD Embedded Ryzen V2000 family can therefore control four independent 4k displays in parallel – with a seamless 60Hz refresh rate and lifelike high dynamic range (HDR) reproduction featuring ten-bit color depth per channel. Next to immersive digital signage and gaming applications, this specifically benefits high-quality medical diagnostic systems, where ten-bit color depth is required for the display of digital X-ray images.

DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.4 provide support for 3D graphics, and the integrated video engine enables hardware-accelerated streaming of 4k HEVC (H.265 and VP9) video at 60Hz in both directions without straining the CPU. To ensure that graphics signals arrive at the display in full bandwidth, the Vega graphics supports the latest interface technologies with up to four DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1 as well as eDP 1.4. Thanks to HSA and OpenCL 2.0 support, deep learning workloads can also be assigned to the GPU.

Optimised interfaces

AMD has optimised its interface offering quite significantly and expanded the I/Os to meet the requirements of high-performance edge systems and IPCs, which are in particularly high demand today. The AMD Ryzen V2000 processors support 20 PCIe Gen 3 lanes. That’s eight more than the V1000 series, which even with the four additional PCIe lanes only offers a total of 16 lanes.

The V2000 processors also enable full USB-C implementation out of the box. That’s because two of the in total four USB 3.1 Gen 2 capable USB ports with 10 Gbit/s also support the USB modes Power Delivery and Alt-DP with DisplayPort 1.4 signals. In addition, the new SoCs support four USB 2.0. As before, up to two SATA ports are available for data storage.

However, storage media are best connected via the fast NVMe interface, which with four PCIe offers significantly more bandwidth. The AMD Ryzen V2000 SoCs further supports a range of interfaces that are specifically adapted for the embedded market, such as legacy UART, I²C, SMBus, SPI and GPIOs.

Enhanced security

Next to improved performance and efficiency, AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 series processors also provide advanced security features for greater protection against unauthorised access to stored data or critical software. As in the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 and R1000 series, AMD Memory Guard supports several security features in AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors, among them:

• Secure Memory Encryption for encrypting the main memory. It prevents physical attackers from accessing confidential data and helps defend against cold start attacks.
• Secure Boot protects the boot process so that no unauthorised software or malware can take over important system functions.
• UEFI Secure Boot prevents malicious code or unauthorised software from being loaded at system startup.

To ensure that performance is not impacted by the encrypted data encoding and decoding, AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors support AES-NI for hardware-accelerated encryption and decryption of AES-encoded data. Zen 2 also provides AMD processors with hardware-based protection against the well-known Spectre and Spectre v4 exploits. Consequently, OEMs and users no longer have to rely on firmware or OS-based security mechanisms.

COM Express Compact modules

AMD has launched the new AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 series in four processor variants, which are all supported by congatec’s new conga-TCV2 COM Express Type 6 Compact modules. They feature 4MB L2 cache, 8MB L3 cache, and up to 64GB for fast and energy-efficient 64-bit Dual Channel DDR4 memory with up to 3200 MT/s and ECC support for maximum data security.

The integrated AMD Radeon graphics with up to seven processing units supports applications and use cases that require high-performance GPU data processing. The conga-TCV2 Computer-on-Modules therefore support up to four independent displays with a resolution of up to 4k60 UHD via three DisplayPort 1.4/HDMI 2.1 and one LVDS/eDP.

Further performance-oriented interfaces include one PEG 3.0 x8 and eight PCIe Gen 3 lanes, two USB 3.1 Gen 2, eight USB 2.0, up to two SATA Gen 3, one Gbit Ethernet, eight GPIOs, SPI, LPC, and two legacy UART provided by the board controller.

The RTS hypervisor as well as the Microsoft Windows 10, Linux/Yocto, Android Q, and Wind River VxWorks operating systems are further supported. Applications with high security demands benefit from the integrated AMD Secure processor, which helps with hardware-accelerated encryption and decryption of RSA, SHA, and AES. Onboard TPM support is also provided.

Suited for all types of edge devices

Together, these features, led by the high compute core count and performance density for COM Express Type 6 modules, predestine the new Computer-on-Modules for digitisation and parallel edge analytics – including workload balancing and consolidation enabled by virtual machines based on congatec’s RTS real-time hypervisor implementations.

With up to 16 threads, the AMD Ryzen V2000 series based conga-TCV2 modules enable high-performance embedded system designs that can execute twice as many tasks within a given TDP range. This helps address the rising number of parallel tasks. The integrated graphics, which continues to provide excellent 3D graphics quality on up to four independent 4k60 displays, is also impressive – as is the fact that all this is scalable from 54W TDP to ultra low power configurations consuming as little as ten watts.

However, this doesn’t mean that the AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor series has become obsolete with the launch of the new processors; for lower performance ranges with fewer cores, the V1000 series is still a good choice.

Further use cases for the new modules include all standard embedded applications – from industrial box PCs and thin clients to embedded systems with impressive computing and graphics performance. The new modules also find an important market in smart robotics, e‑mobility and autonomous vehicle applications that use deep learning to optimise situational awareness.