The Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-X family, comprised of the IQ-X7181 and IQ-X5181 SoCs, offers eight or twelve Oryon cores clocked at up to 3.4 GHz, an Adreno GPU, and up to 45 TOPS of AI performance for industrial PCs running Windows LTSC. Those are upgrades to the Dragonwing IQ9/IQ8/IQ6 SoCs introduced last year, offering faster cores, higher speed interfaces, and more.
The IQ-X chips support up to 64GB LPDDR5x memory, UFS 4.0 and SD 3.0 storage, eDP and USB-C display interfaces, up to six cameras, PCIe Gen4 connectivity for optional Ethernet, WiFi 7, and 5G cellular connectivity, and feature eleven USB interfaces and 221 GPIOs. As industrial-grade parts, they are rated for -40°C to 105°C operation.
Qualcomm DragonWing IQ-X7181 and IQ-X5181 specifications:
- CPU
- IQ-X5181 – Custom Qualcomm Oryon 8-core 64-bit Armv8 CPU clocked up to 3.4 GHz
- IQ-X7181 – Custom Qualcomm Oryon 12-core 64-bit Armv8 CPU clocked up to 3.4 GHz
- GPU – Qualcomm Adreno GPU clocked up to 1.1 GHz (IQ-X5181) or 1.25 GHz (IQ-X7181)
- VPU
- IQ-X5181
- Video Decode – 4Kp60 VP9, AV1
- Video Encode – 4Kp30 AV1
- IQ-X7181
- Video Decode – 4K120; Formats: VP9, AV1
- Video Encode – 4Kp60 AV1
- IQ-X5181
- AI Performance – 45 TOPS from CPU, GPU, and Hexagon NPU
- System Memory – Up to 64GB 8x 16-bit LPDDR5X @ 4.2 GHz; up to 36GB addressable memory with inline ECC
- Storage
- UFS 4.0 gear 5 – 2x lanes for on-board memory
- 4‑bit port for SD 3.0 SD/MMC card
- IQ-X7181 only – 8-bit port, for reserved use
- Display Interfaces
- 4-lane eDP (eDP1.4b) up to 4096 × 2160 at 60 Hz, 30 bpp or 3240 × 2160 at 120 Hz, 30 bpp;
- DisplayPort v1.4a over USB up to 5120 × 2880 at 60 Hz 10‑bit
- Camera
- Qualcomm Spectra 780 ISP
- IQ-X5181
- Up to 4x cameras (DPHY), 1x RGB + 1x IR concurrently, 1x 36 MP @ 30 fps ZSL single ISP
- 2x 4-lane CSI
- IQ-X7181
- Up to 6x cameras (DPHY), 1x RGB camera + IR, 2x 36 MP @ 30 fps ZSL dual ISP
- 4x 4-lane CSI
- Networking
- Ethernet (and PCIe expansion) supported via QPS615 companion chip, also known as a “PCIe switch”
- WiFi and Bluetooth via M.2 PCIe modules
- External WiFi 7 / WiFi 6E via WCN785/WCN6856
- 5G cellular connectivity via Snapdragon X65 (SDX65) modem
- USB
- 2x USB 3.1 Gen2 (10 Gbps)
- 3x USB 4.0 Type-C with DisplayPort v1.4a Alt. mode
- 6x eUSB 2.0
- PCIe
- IQ-X5181 – 2x 4-lane Gen4, 2x 2-lane Gen3
- IQ-X7181 – 8-lane Gen4 + 4-lane (2+2) Gen4, 2x 2-lane Gen3
- Other I/O – 221x GPIO; support for UART, SPI, I3C, I2C via QUPWi-Fi/Bluetooth/WAN
- Package – 1747-ball BGM, 58.0 x 58.0 mm, max height of 3 mm
- Temperature Range – -40°C to 105°C
- Longevity – 10+ years
The IQ-X5181 looks like an industrial-grade version of the Snapdragon X, and the IQ-X7181 of the Snapdragon X Elite, albeit with some tweaks like lower frequency, weaker NPU, etc.
The Qualcomm IQ-X family will power industrial Edge AI computers running Windows 10/11 IoT Enterprise LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel), and the company highlights support for Qt, CODESYS, EtherCAT, and other tools. Linux is not mentioned at all. The company also provides an evaluation and development kit – pictured above – for the Dragonwing IQ-X, as well as a COM Express module for deployment.
Target applications include factory automation and robotics, industrial Human Machine Interfaces (HMI), Edge AI vision and surveillance, Smart Transportation, and energy and utilities infrastructure, such as edge-based SCADA nodes and monitoring systems.
Qualcomm says Advantech, congatec, NEXCOM, Portwell, Tria, and SECO will launch Dragonwing IQ-X-powered commercial devices in the coming months. A few additional details may be found on the product page and the press release.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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