UP Xtreme x11 SBC with Tiger Lake opens at $299

UP Xtreme x11 SBC with Tiger Lake opens at $299

Aug 11, 2021 — by Eric Brown

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Aaeon’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake powered” UP Xtreme x11” SBC is open for pre-order starting at $299 (barebones), with shipments due in September. Highlights include 3x M.2, PCIe x4, 1GbE, 2.5GbE, 3x USB 3.2 Gen2, and USB 4.0 Type-C.

Last November, Aaeon Europe’s UP! Bridge the Gap community announced the UP Xtreme i11 SBC based on Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake-U processors with plans to start pre-orders in 1Q 2021. The SBC has finally opened for pre-order with prices ranging from $299 to $969 without RAM, storage, or wireless. Shipments are expected next month.

UP Xtreme i11 (shipping version)
(click images to enlarge)

The UP Xtreme x11 is the most powerful community backed hacker board around, followed by Seco’s Ryzen V1000 based Udoo Bolt. UP boards are not as open source as most of the 150 SBCs in our hacker board roundup, but some hardware files are posted and the UP community provides extensive support services. Applications for the UP Xtreme i11 include CNC, HMI, medical imaging and diagnostics, “and other applications requiring high resolution HDR output with AI capabilities,” says Aaeon.

The UP Xtreme x11 would not make it into our roundup due to the high $299 entry point. As noted, the $299 price for the entry-level model with the dual-core, up to 1.8GHz Celeron 6305E does not include RAM or storage. By comparison, the previous performance leader among UP boards — the similarly 122 x 120mm, but 8th Gen Whiskey Lake-U based UP Xtreme — starts at $299 with a dual-core Celeron, 4GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC.

The 10nm fabricated Tiger Lake-U is much faster than Whiskey Lake-U, especially when it comes to the Iris Xe graphics. Iris Xe is also the first Intel GPU to support AI acceleration, which is supported here with AI/DL instruction sets, including VNNI. Yet, Iris Xe is not available with the Celeron or Core-i3 parts, which instead offer Intel UHD Graphics.

Since the original announcement, Aaeon has switched all the Tiger Lake Core options from the embedded “E” models to the industrial “GRE” parts, which add Intel Time Coordinated Computing (Intel TCC), TSN, and functional safety features. This suggests that despite the community focus, many of the customers interested in the UP Xtreme i11 are planning to use the SBCs for industrial applications or other tasks than need TSN/TCC network synchronization. (Or possibly there is greater availability of the GRE models.)

The only other difference we saw since November is that one of the 4x, up to 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2 ports has been downgraded to USB 2.0. The UP Xtreme i11 provides up to 64GB DDR4-3200 and offers storage via SATA 3.0 or M.2 M-key (NVMe). You also get M.2 E-key for WiFi and M.2 B-key and a SIM card slot for up to 5G. A PCIe x4 interface is available with an optional adapter board.

UP Xtreme i11 detail views
(click image to enlarge)

Media features include 4K ready HDMI 2.0 and DP ports plus a second DP via Type-C, which is provided via one of the few USB 4.0 ports we have seen. There is also a combo interface for MIPI-DSI and eDP along with audio I/O.

The UP Xtreme i11 provides Gigabit Ethernet and 2.5GbE ports. Serial headers are available along with a 40-pin GPIO header, although Aaeon is no longer calling it a HAT interface. The 12V, 0 to 60°C tolerant board also offers an RTC, watchdog, and TPM 2.0.

Last November, Aaeon surprised us by mentioning a pre-install option for Ubuntu 20.04 but not for Windows. That situation has now reversed to business as usual. Yocto is also available.

The UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit, an enclosed version that was announced back in November, will ship in the third quarter at an undisclosed price. The fanless, 152 x 124 x 66.5mm system exposes all the major ports of the UP Xtreme i11 and expresses the dual serial headers as DB9 ports and the 40-pin GPIO as a Phoenix connector.

UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling Kit (left) and UP Xtreme Lite
(click images to enlarge)

We also see that the slightly scaled down, Whiskey Lake based UP Xtreme Lite version of the UP Xtreme announced back in July 2020 is now available on back-order with 16-week lead time. Pricing (without RAM or storage) is $599 with the Core i5-8365UE and $699 for the Core i7-8665UE.

Updated specifications listed for the UP Xtreme i11 SBC include:

• Processor — Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake UP3 with 15W cTDP and 28W TDP:
  • Core i7-1185GRE (up to 4.4 GHz) with Iris Xe Graphics — $969
  • Core i5-1145GRE (up to 4.1 GHz) with Iris Xe Graphics — $779
  • Intel Core i3-1115GRE (up to 3.9 GHz) with Intel UHD Graphics — $519
  • Intel Celeron 6305E (up to 1.8 GHz) Intel UHD Graphics — $299
• Memory — Up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 via dual sockets with In-Band ECC support
• Storage:
  • SATA III with SATA power (5V/12V)
  • NVMe available via M.2 M-key
• Networking — 1GbE and 2.5GbE ports (Intel 1219 and Intel i225) with TSN, WoL, and PXE (vPRO with i5 and i7); WiFi/BT and up to 5G optional via M.2 slots
• Media I/O:
  • HDMI 2.0b port with 4K and audio
  • DisplayPort 1.4+ with 4K and audio
  • Second DP 1.4 available via USB 4.0 Type-C
  • MIPI-DSI/eDP with 4K
  • Audio I/O jack with Soundwire codec
  • I2S audio interface
• Other I/O:
  • 3x USB 3.2 Gen2 host ports
  • USB 2.0 host port
  • USB 4.0 Type-C port with DP support
  • 2x RS232/422/485 (10-pin connectors)
  • HSUART and BIOS headers; fan connector
• Expansion:
  • 40-pin GPIO header (powered by Intel Altera MAX 5 FPGA)
  • M.2 M-key 2280 with 2x PCIe and NVMe; optional UP AI Core XM 2280 (2x Myriad-X VPUs)
  • M.2 E-key 2230 with optional WiFi-5/6 with BT (via optional Intel AC9260 with antennas)
  • M.2 B-key 3052 with LTE/4G/5G support
  • SIM card slot
  • PCIe x4 interface (requires optional adapter board)
• Other features — RTC with battery connector; watchdog; active heatsink; TPM 2.0; 4x LEDs
• Power — Lockable 12V DC input (AT/ATX modes); power and reset buttons; power header; power mode jumper; typical 32W consumption
• Operating temperature — 0 to 60°C; 0-90% non-condensing relative humidity
• Dimensions — 122 x 120mm
• Operating system — Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with Linux 5.4; Yocto 3.1 (Linux 5.4) and Windows 10 “full” with optional pre-install

Further information

The UP Xtreme i11 is available for pre-order with shipments due in September. Prices without RAM, storage, or wireless options are $299 (Celeron), $519 (i3), $779 (i5), and $969 (i7). More information may be found in the Aaeon Europe UP community announcement, as well as the shopping page and product page.