June 2014
8
C
OVER
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TORY
graphics capabilities while at the same time
offering high energy and cost efficiency. As
time to market will be an increasingly impor-
tant competitive factor, developers are looking
for simplified development. They should, there-
fore, stick to a technology that offers simple
programmability based on common standards
as well as a rich ecosystem of peripherals and
tool chains. This will help developers to reduce
development efforts as well as improve the
time to market of their new appliances. Addi-
tionally, the base technology must fulfill the
requirements for small form factor (SFF) de-
signs, combined with high longevity and relia-
bility, to enable the appliances to enter areas
which were previously unattainable and to
keep the total cost of ownership as low as pos-
sible. So it comes as no surprise that many em-
bedded OEMs are opting for low power x86
platforms which are expected to become even
more energy-efficient in the future. An in-
creasing number of engineers are currently
becoming more attracted to platforms from a
vendor who, over the past several years, has
been significantly focused on increasing its
sales as well as market share in the embedded
market: AMD. There are a number of good
reasons for this.
The AMD Embedded G-Series SoC platform
integrates all the aforementioned demands in
a single system-on-chip design. The company
is leading in the development of a heteroge-
neous system architecture (HSA) which is also
fundamental for IoT applications. Furthermore,
it has developed the Embedded G-Series SoCs
specifically for power-, graphic-, and cost-sen-
sitive SFF designs. They are available as dual-
and quad-core versions and are based on the
Jaguar CPU core with 28 nm manufacturing
technology and 8000-series AMD Radeon
graphics. They can process more instructions
per clock cycle, which is also reflected in the
execution of various compute-intensive indus-
try standard benchmarks: Compared to the
Intel Atom, the AMD G-Series SoCs achieve a
125% improvement in CPU performance when
performing industry-standard compute-inten-
sive benchmarks. The ability of the SoC plat-
form to support enterprise-class error-correc-
tion code memory (ECC) makes it the perfect
choice for applications requiring high levels
of data integrity without compromising energy
efficiency.
The discrete-class graphics, which are integrated
into the AMD Embedded G-Series SoC, enable
power applications that previously required a
separate graphics processor. These SoCs provide
up to 20%more performance when compared
to the previous generation AMD G-Series
processors and a five-fold improvement over
the Intel Atom D525 processor. DirectX 11
and OpenGL are supported on up to two in-
dependent displays. Thanks to an improved
universal video decoder, new opportunities
have opened up for hardware-based video en-
coding. Furthermore, with the open computing
language, OpenCL, computing-intensive tasks
can be reassigned to the graphics processor
with high parallelism. For such applications,
the integrated GPU provides a computing per-
formance of up to 256 GFLOPs. This allows
AMD Embedded G-Series SoCs to be used in
deeply embedded or so called headless IoT ap-
pliances, which are used in environments with-
out a screen, monitor or input device and
which do not require a graphics solution.
It is, however, not just a question of the right
embedded processor technology. This on its
own does not suffice to enable OEMs to ex-
pertly innovate IoT appliances. More than
anything, they require suitable embedded com-
puting platforms on which to base their appli-
cations. To simplify the design, optimize the
time to market and keep R&D efforts as low
as possible, OEMs should rely on tested and
proven standards. This approach is also the
best guarantee for maximum design security,
reliability and it enables a high level of re-use.
The most common and successful platforms
for low power SFF devices are Mini-ITX moth-
erboards and the Computer-On-Module stan-
dards, Qseven and COM Express for semi-
custom designs.
The fastest way for OEMs to integrate the
AMD Embedded G-Series SoC into their IoT
designs is by deploying Mini-ITX mother-
boards. They can be obtained off-the-shelf
and are ready-to-use, plus, they boast a broad
ecosystem of building blocks such as peripher-
als, chassis and cooling solutions. This makes
system development a comfortable, fast and
easy task. However, not just any motherboard
is suitable for IoT appliances. OEMs should
check for high quality boards with long-term
availability. An intelligent board design with
high EMC (electromagnetic compatibility),
long-lasting components, such as poscaps and
an extended temperature range, is essential, if
OEMs want reliable IoT appliances. With the
premiere of its first industrial motherboard,
congatec has now also transferred its expertise
and quality standards of Computer-On-Mod-
ules into the SBC (single board computer)
market. OEMs will benefit from the high Ger-
man engineering quality of the company to-
gether with an additional services range of 7+
years availability. Further examples of the
added value provided are the global technical
support, extended specifications and cus-
tomized design services, including dedicated
BIOS/UEFI features.
For designers who need a higher level of cus-
tomization, the Computer-On-Module ap-
proach serves as the best choice. COMs provide
developers with the comfort and safety of a
classic board solution combined with the flexi-
bility of custom designs. The module is a stan-
dard platform, only the dedicated carrierboard
has to be developed. It executes the external in-
terfaces and can be designed in any required
form. Due to the separation of the computing
and application levels, the design effort is more
simplified. OEMs will benefit from high design
reliability and improved time to market com-
pared to full custom designs. congatec support
and development engineers even advise cus-
tomers during the planning phase. This helps
optimize system and integration costs right
from the start. For IoT applications, the com-
pany recommends the slim-line Qseven and
the COM Express standards.
Figure 2. Application ready Mini-ITX SBC
conga-IGX with AMD G-Series SoC
Figure 3. Slim shaped congatec Qseven module
with AMD G-Series SoC
Figure 4. COM Express compact module with
AMD G-Series SoC - Type 6 compatible
