ADLINK NuPRO-E47: PICMG 1.3 13th Generation Core Industrial SHB

ADLINK NuPRO-E47: Analysis of PICMG 1.3 High Performance Industrial SHB Technology Based on 12th/13th Generation Intel Core Processor

In the field of industrial computing, the PICMG 1.3 (SHB Express) standard has become the mainstream form of high-performance industrial single board computers due to its architectural advantage of introducing high-speed PCI Express signals into the backplane. With the rapid growth of demand for edge computing capability, AI reasoning performance and real-time data processing in Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing, traditional embedded platforms are facing increasing pressure on computing power and I/O bandwidth.

ADLINK (Linghua Technology) NuPRO-E47 is the flagship PICMG 1.3 full-size system motherboard (SHB) launched in this context. It is based on Intel ®  Q670E Express chipset, supporting 12th generation (Alder Lake) and 13th generation (Raptor Lake) Intel ®  Core ™  The i9/i7/i5/i3 processor (LGA1700 socket) introduces cutting-edge technologies such as high-performance hybrid architecture, DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen4, etc. of the latest desktop processors into the robust industrial SHB platform, providing unprecedented computing performance and scalability for the next generation of intelligent industrial systems.

Overview of Product Positioning and Core Architecture

The NuPRO-E47 adopts the standard PICMG 1.3 full-size specification, with dimensions of 338mm × 126mm, and is connected to the passive backplane through a gold finger connector. This architecture physically separates the CPU core computing unit from the I/O expansion unit, supporting independent upgrading of SHB without replacing the backplane and chassis, greatly extending the system lifecycle and return on investment.

1. Processor support: Industrial implementation of high-performance hybrid architecture

The NuPRO-E47 is equipped with LGA1700 sockets and supports 12th and 13th generation Intel Core processors, covering the entire product line from entry-level Celeron to flagship Core i9, with TDP coverage ranging from 35W to 65W

Processor Series Code Core Architecture Maximum Core Count L3 Cache Typical TDP Applicable Scenarios

Core ™  I9 Alder/Raptor Lake P-core+E-core 24 (8P+16E) 36MB 65W/35W (TE) AI reasoning, multitasking parallel

Core ™  I7 Alder/Raptor Lake P-core+E-core 16 (8P+8E) 30MB 65W/35W (TE) high-performance industrial control

Core ™  I5 Alder/Raptor Lake P-core+E-core 14 (6P+8E) 24MB 65W/35W (TE) mainstream machine vision platform

Core ™  I3 Alder/Raptor Lake P-core only 4 12MB 60W/35W (T/TE) HMI and medium control tasks

Pentium ®  G series Alder Lake P-core only 2 6MB 46W/35W (TE) basic control and data acquisition

Celeron ®  G series Alder Lake P-core only 2 4MB 46W/35W (TE) cost sensitive embedded applications

The introduction of Performance Hybrid Architecture is the most significant change for this platform compared to its predecessors. The P-core is responsible for high load computing tasks, while the E-core handles backend services and lightweight threads. With the Intel Thread Director hardware scheduler, the system can allocate tasks to the most suitable core in real-time and intelligently based on load characteristics, optimizing power consumption performance while improving multi-threaded performance.

2. Chipset - Intel Q670E Express

The Q670E PCH (Platform Controller Hub) is connected to the processor via DMI 4.0 x8, providing up to 25.6 GB/s of bidirectional bandwidth (approximately 4 times higher than DMI 3.0). Its key industrial grade features include:

PCIe Channels: Provides up to 24 PCIe 4.0 channels (16GT/s) and 8 PCIe 3.0 channels, providing ample I/O resources for high bandwidth expansion cards on the backplane, such as GPUs, FPGA acceleration cards, and multi port 10G network cards.

Integrated storage and networking: Supports SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) and Intel ®  2.5GbE Ethernet.

Enterprise level management: Built in Intel ®  Active Management Technology (AMT) and Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) support remote out of band management.

Deep analysis of key characteristics

1. PCIe slot bifurcation technology

Continuing the design tradition of the NuPRO-E series, the NuPRO-E47 supports flexible fork configurations of PCIe x16 gold finger interfaces to adapt to different backplane expansion slot layouts:

Mode 1:1 x PCIe x16 (full bandwidth single slot, supporting high-performance GPU)

Mode 2: 2xPCIe x8 (suitable for dual card parallel computing, such as AI inference dual GPU configuration)

Combined with 1 x PCIe x4 and 4 x PCI expansion slots on the backplane, the NuPRO-E47 can achieve up to 6 PCIe/PCI expansion slots. This feature enables system integrators to flexibly configure expansion card combinations based on specific applications without the need to replace SHBs.

2. DDR5 memory: intergenerational leap in performance and capacity

The NuPRO-E47 is equipped with two DIMM slots and supports dual channel non ECC DDR5 4800 MHz memory, with a maximum capacity of 64GB. Compared to DDR4, the key improvements brought by DDR5 include:

Higher bandwidth: The theoretical bandwidth of DDR5 4800 is about 38.4GB/s, which is about 50% higher than DDR4 3200's 25.6GB/s.