“I shall call him . . . Mini-Me.”
Fans of 1990s pop culture know that line forever changed the Austin Powers movie trilogy. All the same traits and qualities of the origial in one-eighth the size. Decades later, “Mini-Me” is still a part of the English lexicon.
1990s movie trilogies do not typically influence the technical development of industry standards. Yet, the latest PICMG COM-HPC 1.2 specification certainly tries. 😉 A new, small form factor – COM-HPC Mini – targeted at high-growth applications like autonomous mobile robots, drones, mobile 5G test and measurement equipment, and other edge applications has been created.
“The COM-HPC size A started at 95 mm x 120 mm, but the market loves the Mini size as well as the performance you get with COM-HPC,” says Christian Eder, Director of Product Marketing at congatec and Chairman of the COM-HPC Working Group at PICMG. “The whole trend of making things smaller and more power-saving was a reaction to market trends, and it will continue.”
The new COM-HPC Mini form factor resembles a credit card. It measures roughly 90 x 75 mm. That makes half the size of the next-smallest COM-HPC form factor.
Key COM-HPC Mini Features
Current COM-HPC Server and Client Modules utilize two 400-pin connectors. The new COM-HPC Mini form factor removes one connector leaving a single 400-pin connector. This helps shrink the size for denser applications.
Even with a smaller size, the new COM-HPC Mini form factor can still provides access to high-speed protocols and interfaces like its bigger relatives. Examples of high-speed throughput support include:
- Storage – 2x SATA ports (shared with PCIe lanes)
- Display – 1x eDP, 2x DDI
- Networking – 2x 10 Gbps NBASE-T Ethernet ports
- USB
- 8x SuperSpeed lanes (for USB4/ThunderBolt, USB 3.2, or DDI)
- 8x USB 2.0
- PCIe – 16x PCIe lanes (PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0)
- Misc – Boot SPI and eSPI, UART, CAN, Audio, FUSA, and power management signals.
- I/O voltage – 1.8V on most pins (while it’s 3.3V on larger COM-HPC modules)
- Input voltage – 8V to 20V DC
- Input power – Up to 107W
- Dimensions – 95 x 70 x 15 mm
“The COM-HPC Mini specification leverages the high-speed capabilities and SI performance of existing COM-HPC interconnect solutions,” says Matthew Burns, Global Director of Technical Marketing at Samtec. “Dropping one 400-pin connector enables small form-factors without sacrificing the data throughput demanded at the Far Edge.”
For more information, please visit www.samtec.com/COMHPC or email [email protected].
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