Single-board computer targets industrial users

The new single-board computer is powered by the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU3EG MPSoC, which is ideal for high-performance control and safety-critical applications.

By increasing the operating temperature range, Avnet is expanding the Ultra96-V2’s range of deployment capabilities into IoT use cases where extreme temperatures might be expected, such as smart cities and intensive computing applications.

"The rise of IoT technology is necessitating the use of equipment that can withstand temperatures at both extremes," said Bryan Fletcher, technical marketing director, Avnet. "Adding an industrial-temperature option for the Ultra96-V2 allows customers to develop and deploy the Ultra96-V2 in industrial applications, as opposed to simply using it for commercial-temperature applications or proof of concept."

The industrial-temperature–grade single-board computer (AES-ULTRA96-V2-I-G) enhances the existing commercial-temperature–grade Ultra96-V2 by expanding the tested and verified operating temperature range to minus 40 degrees C to 85 degrees C. The electrical functionality of the industrial-grade product is identical to the Ultra96-V2.

The industrial-temperature–grade product includes a new heatsink developed in cooperation with Aavid, Thermal Division of Boyd Corporation. Aavid helped design a passive thermal solution that enables industrial-temperature operation with superior thermal conductivity and dissipation capabilities.

All Ultra96-V2 C-grade shipped January 2020 or later also features this new heatsink, which will allow support of more demanding applications in the zero degrees C to 60 degrees C temperature range.

A heatsink upgrade kit is available for customers who purchased an Ultra96-V2 prior to January 2020. This upgrade, called the new Ultra96-V2 Aavid industrial heatsink (AES-ACC-U96-PHS1), will enhance thermal support for commercial grade boards, adding higher frequency DPU operation.

"Aavid’s design and manufacturing expertise across all heatsink technologies enabled our engineers to quickly design a passive thermal solution for the new Ultra96-V2 industrial-temperature–grade single-board computer," said Christopher Chapman, Aavid product manager. "Our engineers’ in-depth knowledge of air-moving technologies and flow management ensures that our thermal-management solutions are fully optimised and efficiently fabricated for overall product performance, lifetime and reliability."

"Xilinx’s powerful, adaptable MPSoC, coupled with Avnet’s high-quality thermal design and engineering, offers customers the ability to run today’s most advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms across a number of applications, in temperatures from minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius," said Chetan Khona, director of Industrial, Vision, Healthcare & Sciences Business, Xilinx, Inc. "Xilinx devices also support the lifecycle, quality, reliability, security and low power requirements necessary for industrial, smart cities, and other extreme environments. This industrial version of the Ultra96-V2 single-board computer makes these attributes and capabilities more accessible than ever before in a low-cost and easy-to-design offering from Avnet."

The platform comes as a complete development kit and includes a 16GB I-grade microSD card + adapter and quick-start instruction card