Smart manufacturing is dirty, harsh work and Qualcomm has emerged with industrial-grade processor in its Dragonwing line.
The company launched on Thursday the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-X Series of industrial-grade processors that are engineered for panel PCs, box PCs, edge controllers, PLCs and advanced HMIs where harsh industrial operating conditions are the norm.
The new Qualcomm processors unify on-device AI, multimedia and connectivity with extensible I/O in a compact design that is power-efficient and protected against rugged environments, the company said. Target applications are in factory automation, advanced human machine interfaces, medical PCs, robotics, panel and box industrial PCs and smart display and retail PCs.
They come in ruggedized packages with peripheral support for a broad range of industrial equipment, which obviously includes sensors that monitor conditions in fabs and other manufacturing settings. Power efficiency and multimedia potential are part of the package.
The processors bring Qualcomm Oryon CPU single and multithread performance to industrial PCs which will enable “smarter factories, more capable and faster edge controllers on the factory floor,” said Nakul Duggal, group general manager for automotive, industrial and embed IoT at Qualcomm. Dragonwing IQ-X will provide a “superior platform to build on for years while reducing complexity and reducing time to market.”
A major role for compute in smart factories is detecting irregularities in lighting fast assembly line process work, often done with high resolution optical sensors that communicate with edge processors to either shut down the line or alert personnel. With such automation, down time can be avoided, to produce higher yields. Some sensors also monitor equipment for failures, using acoustic sensors to monitor for unexpected noises or vibration sensors that detect excessive movement in machine parts.
Qualcomm has described use cases for previous Dragonwing IQ processors for asset inspection and emergency response, as well as industrial worker assistance and worker safety and site security.
Leading OEMs are adopting the IQ-X Series and expect to announce commercial devices in coming months when pricing is normally announced. They include Advantech, congatec, NEXCOM, Portwell, SECO and Tria.
Qualcomm said the IQ-X series has up to 3.4 GHz of single thread performance from 12 or 8-core CPUs and 45 TOPS of AI acceleration with up to three times lower power than leading competitors. It supports multiple cameras, 5K displays and peripherals like USB4, 16 PCIe lanes and UFS 4.0 for high-speed I/O. They can operate from negative 40 degrees C to 105 degrees C and supports Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC.
In addition to the custom Oryon CPUs at either 12-core or 8-core, there are two version of Adreno GPUs at 1.25 GHz or 1.1 GHz. Memory is 8 x 16-bit LPDDr5X at 4.2 GHz. Other specs are described on the Qualcomm product sheet.
The entire package measures 58 x 58 mm with a max height of 3 mm.