Advantech SOM-6820 is a COM Express Type 6 Compact Computer-on-Module powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC with up to twelve 64-bit Arm Oryon cores, instead of an x86 processor from Intel or AMD, more commonly found on COM Express modules.
The COM also features up to 64GB LPDDR5 memory, two MIPI CSI camera connectors, an RTL8153B USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet controller, and a TPM 2.0 security chip. All I/Os are exposed through two standard 220-pin B2B connectors, including DisplayPort and LVDS/eDP interfaces for up to four 4K displays, up to four SATA III for storage, twelve USB 3.0/2.0 interfaces, multiple PCIe Gen4/3 interfaces, and more. With up to 45 TOPS of AI performance, the SOM-6820 is especially well-suited to medical imaging and machine vision applications as well as mission-critical systems and humanoid robots.
Advancec SOM-6820 specifications:
- Snapdragon X Elite SoC variants (one or the other)
- X1E-00-1DE 12-core up to 3.8 GHz / 4.3 GHz (dual-core) with 42MB cache; 45W TDP
- X1E-78-100 12-core up to 3.4 GHz with 42MB cache; 45W TDP
- X1P-66-100 10-core up to 3.4 GHz / 4.0 GHz (single-core) with 42MB cache; 45W TDP
- X1P-42-100 8-core up to 3.2 GHz / 3.4 GHz (single-core) with 30MB cache; 45W TDP
- All with Adreno GPU supporting DX12.2, OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 3.0 full profile, Adreno NN direct, GMEM, DirectM
- VPU
- H.264/HEVC/VP9/AV1 UHD120 hardware decode
- H.264/HEVC/VP9/AV1 UHD60 hardware encode
- AI NPU – Qualcomm Hexagon, up to 45 TOPS
- System Memory – Up to 64GB LPDDR5X @ 8,448 MT/s
- Camera I/F – 2x 4-lane MIPI-CSI FPC connectors
- Networking – Realtek RTL8153B USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet controller
- 2x 220-pin standard board-to-board connectors
- Storage – Up to 4x SATA 3.0 (6 Gbps)
- Display
- DisplayPort 2.1 HBR3 up to 4096×2304 @ 60Hz
- Dual-channel LVDS up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz or eDP up to 4096×2304 @ 60Hz
- Up to 4x simultaneous independent display (3x DP + 1x LVDS|eDP)
- Audio – SoundWire
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet
- USB
- 4x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps)
- 8x USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
- Serial
- SMBus, I²C
- 2-wire COM ports
- Expansion
- PEG – PCIe Gen4, 8 lanes, Bifurcate to 1×8
- PCI Express PCIe Gen3 & 4: up to 8 lanes in the following configurations
- PCIe Gen4: 4 lanes, Bifurcate to 4×4
- PCIe Gen3: 2 lanes, Bifurcate to 2×2 or 2×1
- PCIe Gen3: 2 lanes, Bifurcate to 2×2 without SATA
- 8-bit GPIO
- Security – TPM 2.0
- Misc
- Watchdog
- SPI bus for BIOS EEPROM, support dual BIOS failsafe
- Cooling via Advantech’s QFCS (Quadro Flow Cooling System)
- Power Supply
- Type – ATX: Vin, VSB; AT: Vin
- Voltage – Vin: 12V; VSB: 4.75V ~ 5.25V; RTC Battery: 2.0V ~ 3.3V
- Dimensions: 95 mm × 95 mm – COM Express Compact Type 6 compatible (R3.1)
- Temperature Range
- Operating
- Standard: 0 ~ 60°C
- Extended: –40 ~ 85°C
- Storage – -40 ~ 85°C
- Operating
- Humidity: Operating 40°C @ 95% relative humidity, non-condensing; storage 60°C @ 95% relative humidity, non-condensing
- Mechanical Vibration Resistance – 3.5 Grms
- Shock Resistance – TBD
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Advantech mentions support for Windows 11 on Arm, UEFI BIOS, embedded software APIs, as well as DeviceOn and Edge AI SDK. Nothing about Linux, but more on that further below.
The SOM-6820 COM Express module is compatible with the company’s SOM-DB5830-00A3 (LVDS) and SOM-DB5830A-00A3 (eDP) ATX development carrier board for Type 6 / 10 Modules and offering PCIe x16 and PCIe x4 slots,  VGA, LVDS / eDP, HDMI / DP display interfaces, and more.
The SOM-6820 Snapdragon X Elite COM Express module was introduced last June, but what brought me to write about it now is a seemingly unrelated SoM and carrier board that made it to Linux 6.18: Hamoa IoT SOM and the Hamoa EVK board based on Snapdragon X Elite (x1e80100). The X Elite is designed for Windows 11 laptops, and while I knew about Linux getting ported to the platform, I had no idea it would be used on a system-on-module for industrial and embedded applications.
The Linux commits are from a Qualcomm engineer who describes the solution as follows: HAMOA-IOT-EVK is an evaluation platform for IoT products, composed of the Hamoa IoT SoM and a carrier board. Together, they form a complete embedded system capable of booting to UART. Qualcomm does not usually design and sell complete modules, and there’s no public information about it, so it must be an internal reference platform. Still, we can learn more about the level of mainline Linux support for embedded applications by further looking at the Linux 6.18 changelog.
The following peripherals are enabled on the SoM:
- Regulators on the SOM
- Reserved memory regions
- PCIe6a and its PHY
- PCIe4 and its PHY
- USB0 through USB6 and their PHYs
- ADSP, CDSP
- Graphic and Video
While the carrier board supports:
- UART
- On-board regulators
- USB Type-C mux
- Pinctrl
- Embedded USB (EUSB) repeaters
- NVMe
- pmic-glink
- USB DisplayPorts
- Bluetooth
- WLAN
- Audio
Although we’re told it only boots to UART, it appears that good progress has been made, and perhaps in the future, it will be possible to use a Snapdragon X Elite SoM or COM with mainline Linux in commercial products.
Back to the Advanctech SOM-6820… Back in June, the company announced that the COM Express was available for sample orders, so mass production may have already begun since then. More details may be found on the product page.
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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