Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, and Ryzen SBCs run at -30 to 80°C with auto heat-up f...

Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake, and Ryzen SBCs run at -30 to 80°C with auto heat-up feature

Mar 29, 2021 — by Eric Brown

— 1552 views

DFI’s Coffee Lake based “CS551” 3.5-inch SBC features an auto heat-up function that enables a -30 to 80°C range. The feature also appears on new, Whiskey Lake based, 2.5-inch “WL051” and Ryzen-based, 3.5-inch “GH551” SBCs.

DFI has announced a 3.5-inch CS551 SBC built around Intel’s 8th and 9th Gen CPUs claimed to be the first Coffee Lake SBC with a -30 to 80°C operating range. The Linux-ready SBC is also claimed to be the first SBC of any kind with an automatic heat-up function.

The heat-up feature enables the -30°C minimum by automatically heating the CPU when it drops below the chip’s typical lower range of 0°C. On the high end, the systems supports up to 80°C instead of the usual 60°C in part by dynamically allocating computing resources between the CPU and GPU. On higher-TDP models, a fan option is required to achieve the range.

CS551
(click images to enlarge)

The auto heat-up function and -30 to 80°C support are also available on two other SBCs that are listed as new: an 8th Gen Whiskey Lake based, 2.5-inch WL051 and a Ryzen Embedded V1000/R1000 based, 3.5-inch GH551 (see farther below).

While a temperature range of -30 to 80°C or greater is sometimes, but not usually, available on Whiskey Lake and V1000 boards, we could find only one Coffee Lake SBC that extends beyond 0 to 60°C: Axiomtek’s 3.5-inch CAPA520 can achieve -20 to 60°C on up to 35W TDP parts with the help of an optional fan. Other 3.5-inch Coffee Lake boards include Avalue’s ECM-CFS and Commell’s LS-37L and H-series ready LE-37M.

CS551

On 15W TDP 8th or 9th Gen models, the CS551’s -30 to 80°C range can be achieved on the fanless, heatsink-equipped configuration. The optional fan is required for -30 to 80°C operation with 35W and above models, which are limited to -5 to 65°C in the fanless configuration. All these configurations offer 5 to 90% RH tolerance.

CS551 detail view (left) and block diagram
(click images to enlarge)

The CS551 is further touted for its larger M.2 M-key 2280 slot, which provides up to twice the storage capacity of the M.2 B-key 2242 slots typically deployed on 3.5-inch SBCs. When used with the Intel C246 or Q370 I/O chipsets, the M-key slot provides NVMe PCIe x4/SATA 3.0. With the H310 chip, you get NVMe PCIe x2/SATA 3.0.

The board also provides a full-size mini-PCIe slot with PCIe/USB 2.0 or optional USB 3.1 Gen1/USB 2.0. A SIM card slot is optional.

The CS551 runs Linux or Windows 10 IoT Enterprise on a variety of 8th or 9th Gen models using the LGA 1151 socket. You can load up to 32GB DDR4-2666, including ECC RAM when using the C246 chipset.

Triple independent displays are supported via LVDS with backlight and dual 4K-ready DP++ coastline ports. Other ports include 2x GbE and 4x USB 3.1 Gen2 (C246/Q370) or Gen1 (H310).

Onboard I/O includes SATA 3.0 with power, audio I/O, RS-232/422/485, 8-bit DIO, SMBus, 2x USB 2.0, and the auto heat-up header. The SBC has a watchdog, RTC with battery, TPM 2.0, and a 12V header. The CS551 follows earlier DFI 3.5-inch SBCs including its Apollo Lake based AL551.

WL051

The WL051 is a Pico-ITX (2.5-inch) SBC featuring Intel’s 15W 8th Gen Whiskey Lake platform. Other Whiskey Lake based Pico-ITX boards include Commell’s LP-178, Axiomtek’s PICO52R, and Aaeon’s PICO-WHU4.

WL051
(click image to enlarge)

The WL051 supports 0 to 60°C or -30 to 80°C temperatures. By comparison, the Aaeon and Commell Pico-ITX boards are limited to 0 to 60°C and Axiomtek’s PICO52R has a standard -20 to 60°C range.

The SBC runs Linux or Win 10 IoT on four 8th Gen options up to the quad-core, 1.7GHz/4.4GHz Core i7-8665UE. The board ships with up to 16GB DDR4.

Unlike the rivals listed above, the SBC offers a SATA-ready M.2 B-key 3042/2242 slot. In fact, it provides two of them. It similarly supplies an M.2 E-key 2230 socket for WiFi/BT. (Aaeon’s board also has a mini-PCIe slot.)

WL051 detail view (left) and block diagram
(click images to enlarge)

The WL051 is further equipped with 2x GbE, 2x USB 3.1 Gen2, and a combination DP++/HDMI port. Together with a similarly 4K-ready eDP interface, the combo port is said to support triple independent displays, which would presumably require a splitter. Additional features may be seen on the block diagram and detail views above.

GH551

The GH551, which is available in -5 to 65°C or -30 to 80°C models, follows DFI’s smaller, Raspberry Pi sized GHF51 SBC, which is based on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded R1000. The SBC joins other 3.5-inch SBCs built around the V1000 or R1000 including Seco’s SBC-C90 (0 to 60°C), Ibase’s IB918 (0 to 60°C), and Axiomtek’s CAPA13R (-20 to 60°C). The SBC runs Linux or Win 10 IoT on dual- and quad-core V1000 and dual-core R1000 models.

GH551
(click image to enlarge)

You can load up to 16GB DDR4-2400 and store data via a powered SATA 3.0 interface or the M.2 M-key 2280/2242 socket. There is also a full-size mini-PCIe slot. (By comparison, the Ibase and Seco boards both provide triple M.2.)

Unlike its rivals, the GH551 offers 3x standard GbE ports. (Axiomtek’s CAPA13R offers a 4x GbE option.). Like Seco’s SBC-C90, it supplies 4x 4K-ready DP++ ports when using a V1000 (3x on the R1000). An LVDS interface is also available.

GH551 detail view (left) and block diagram
(click images to enlarge)

The GH551 is equipped with 2x USB 3.1 Gen2 and a single USB 2.0 host port on the coastline. Other features include audio I/O, 8-bit DIO, RS-232/422/485, TPM 2.0, and other features shown in the images above.

Further information

The CS551, WL051, and GH551 SBCs are all available with undisclosed pricing. More information may be found in DFI’s CS551 announcement, promo page, product page, and a datasheet (PDF) posted by Assured Systems.

More on the WL051 may be found on the product page and Assured Systems datasheet.

More on the GH551 may be found on the product page and Assured Systems datasheet.