Embedded 1.8-inch Zen PC: DFI Unveils Credit Card-Sized AMD Ryzen Board
by Anton Shilov on March 20, 2020 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Embedded
- Ryzen
- Ryzen Embedded
- DFI
DFI has announced what they consider the world’s smallest single-board computer (SBC) that uses on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded processor. The highly-integrated credit card-sized GHF51 motherboard can be used for a variety of applications that have to be small, yet offer capabilities as well as performance of a modern PC.
The DFI GHF51 1.8-inch platform carries AMD’s dual-core Ryzen Embedded R1000-series SoC with AMD Radeon Vega GPU featuring three compute units (192 stream processors) with hardware H.264, H.265, and VP9 decoding. The SoC can be paired with 2/4/8 GB of single-channel DDR4-3200 memory as well as 16/32/64 GB of eMMC storage. The SBC features one Mini PCIe slot for an add-in card, an 8-pin DIO header, two micro HDMI 1.4 outputs (4Kp30), one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a GbE connector (controlled by the Intel I211AT or the I210IT chip), and an fTPM 2.0 chip.
At present, DFI lists two AMD Ryzen-powered SBCs: the GHF51-BN-43R16 with the Ryzen Embedded R1606G APU (2.60 GHz – 3.50 GHz, 12 W) as well as the GHF51-BN-43R15 with the Ryzen Embedded R1505G APU (2.40 GHz – 3.30 GHz, 12 W). Both boards carry 4 GB of DDR4-3200 memory, 32 GB of eMMC storage, two micro HDMI outputs, a GbE port, and one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. Eventually, the company plans to add motherboards powered by the lower-power Ryzen Embedded R1102G (1.20 GHz – 2.60 GHz, 6 W) or Ryzen Embedded R1305G (1.50 GHz – 2.80 GHz, 8/10 W) SoCs into the lineup in a bid to address applications that have to be less power hungry.
DFI’s GHF51 SBC is an example when AMD’s Ryzen Embedded enters the small form factor embedded market. The 1.8-inch SBCs can power various small form-factor or IoT applications that can take advantage of high-performance Zen cores, but theoretically they can also be used inside devices that currently use Raspberry Pi or similar. Obviously, a Ryzen Embedded SBC will probably cost more than a Raspberry Pi, but it will also provide higher performance, which opens doors to new use cases.
DFI has not announced pricing of its AMD Ryzen Embedded-based SBCs or their availability dates. In fact, the GHF51 product page currently mentions ‘Preliminary’ status of the boards.
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Sources: DFI
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ArtForz - Sunday, March 22, 2020 - link
1.8" ATA HDDksec - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
I am starting to wonder what is the point of telling a product release without pricing?drexnx - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
I wouldn't be surprised if this never has public pricing. Even DFI's website says to contact them for a quotejordanclock - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Pricing is probably highly contingent on volume. This is not something they expect to sell one or two to individuals, but dozens or hundreds to integrators.Desierz - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Does it need a heat sink?drexnx - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
they list both a heatspreader part, and a heatsink part in their literature. says it includes the heatspreader, but the heatsink is optional. A 12w part would need a heatsink of some kind, maybe not an actively cooled one though.SirKnobsworth - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Micro HDMI needs to die. Just put more USB-C ports with display output support.The_Assimilator - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Amen. I find it crazy that we still have HDMI in everything when DisplayPort is royalty-free.PeachNCream - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Its mainly because HDMI is familiar and more universally available so it has pushed into the PC industry and shouldered aside DisplayPort as the default video interface despite the royalties in much the same way that BluRay won as a format (sort of won if you ignore streaming being a thing now).vladx - Saturday, March 21, 2020 - link
No thanks, until most monitors and TVs come with displayport I don't want to buy adapters.