congatec – a leading vendor of standardized and customized embedded computer boards and modules – enters the 3.5 inch single board computer (SBC) business with a 40% performance boost for existing applications. To achieve this impressive performance increase, the new conga-JC370 3.5 inch SBCs are equipped with commercial-grade 8th Generation Intel Core i7 Mobile processors, codenamed Whiskey Lake. This makes congatec – as far as is known – the first company worldwide to offer this new processor generation in an embedded form factor, allowing the company to play a pioneering role in the rollout for the harsh environment. OEM customers benefit from the very early stage access to new high-end BGA processor technology with the opportunity to realize first-to-market advantages. In the future, congatec will support all major processors suitable for this compact SBC form factor, including various embedded variants of the brand new 8th Generation Intel Core i7 Mobile processors.

"With this launch, 3.5 inch board users benefit from a new player in the market differentiating itself through added value that other providers cannot or will not afford," explains Jürgen Jungbauer, Product Line Manager for SBCs at congatec. "For example, customers profit from lower design-in costs thanks to comprehensive consulting, personal integration support and extensive BSPs. The high design quality of the boards also results in lower maintenance and service costs, less replacement during operation, less system downtime, lower design change costs, lower power consumption and longer board life."

With the entrance in the 3.5 inch SBC business, congatec is driving the constant expansion of its product portfolio on the board level. Customers benefit in several ways from this broader board level and solution platform offering: There is a wider product range to choose from, and the development of application-ready computing cores for boards and modules is spreading to more and more products, which reduces costs through reuse and lowers prices. Ultimately, even developers using different form factors can take advantage of this access to identical components, BSPs and documentation, which also reduces costs for the OEM.

The feature set of the new 3.5 inch SBC in detail

The new 3.5 inch SBC is equipped with the 1.8 GHz quad-Core Intel Core i7-8565U Mobile processor that impresses with a performance increase of up to 40% compared to previous U-Series processors (codenamed Kaby Lake) enabled by a leap from 2 to 4 cores along with the improved micro architecture. The memory is designed to match this performance boost: Two DDR4 SODIMM sockets with up to 2400 MT/s are available for a total of up to 64GB. For the first time, USB 3.1 Gen2 is now supported natively. This USB SuperSpeed+ interface is capable of transferring up to 10 Gbps or 1.25 GByte/s, which makes it possible to transfer even uncompressed UHD video from a camera to a monitor. The new conga-JC370 provides this performance via a rear USB-C connector that also supports 1x DisplayPort++ and power delivery for peripheral devices, thereby enabling monitor connection with a single cable. Further interfaces include the support of overall 3 independent 60 Hz UHD displays with up to 4096×2304 pixels as well as 2x Gigabit Ethernet (1x with TSN support). The new conga-JC370 offers all this and many more interfaces with an economical 15 W TDP, which is scalable from 10 W (800 MHz) to 25 W (up to 4.6 GHz in Turbo Boost mode). Next to the Intel Core i7-8565U processor, a variant with i3-8145U processor is available, which offers two cores and a clock rate of up to 2.1 GHz. Of course, these processors will also be available on all other relevant form factors from congatec.

Further information on the new conga-JC370 3.5 inch SBC can be found at:
https://www.congatec.com/en/products/35-sbc/conga-jc370.html

Text and photograph available at:
https://www.congatec.com/en/congatec/press-releases.html

You can also download the complete congatec press kit from embedded world here:
http://cloud7.sams-network.com/public.php?service=files&t=c4f797e0b529f878775e652b48b3acc7