COM-HPC 1.2 specification released with COM-HPC Mini 95x70mm form factor

PICMG has announced the release of the COM-HPC 1.2 specification adding the COM-HPC Mini form factor that’s about the size of a credit card (90x75mm) or half the size of the next-smallest COM-HPC form factor but still provides access to high-speed interfaces such as PCIe Gen5, USB4, and 10GbE.

The COM-HPC “High-Performance Computing” form factor was introduced a few years ago for more powerful CPUs (higher TDP) with support for PCIe Gen4 (the COM Express form factor can’t handle PCIe Gen 4 clock speeds and throughputs well), and until now four sizes were available with COM-HPC Client Type modules measuring 95 x 120mm (Size A) to 160 x 120mm (Size C) and Server Type modules having either 160 x 160mm (Size D) or 200 x 160mm (Size E) dimensions. The COM-HPC Mini brings a smaller (95 x 60 mm) credit card-sized form factor to the COM-HPC standard for applications such as autonomous mobile robots, drones, mobile 5G test and measurement equipment, and other edge applications.

COM-HPC Mini vs COM-HPC
COM-HPC Mini (left) vs other COM-HPC form factors

In order to achieve the smaller size, COM-HPC 1.2 “Mini” modules come with a single 400-pin connector with the following interfaces:

  • 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 (thickness from the top of the carrier board to the top of the heat spreader)

Cameras are still supported via an FFC connector exposing a MIPI CSI interface. That’s about all we know for now, as while the COM-HPC 1.2 specification has been released and is available for download, it costs 750 Euros to access it, and I got most of the information above from the press release.

It’s unclear when we may start to see actual COM-HPC Mini modules from companies such as congatec or ADLINK, but considering PICMG plans to release a “COM-HPC 1.2 Carrier Design Guide” in early 2024, I’d expect announcements later in H1 2024.

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Ralph Hightower
1 year ago

It looks like COM-HPC is a standards organization that requires membership fees to join. I didn’t see any product listings.

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