A Trio of SMARC Compute Modules Meet HMI and Edge AI Needs

Three new SMARC-compliant compute modules have recently entered the market, each designed to bring AI performance to industrial and embedded applications. Specifically, Advantech, Tria Technologies, and Aaeon have introduced compact boards built on NXP, Renesas, and MediaTek platforms, respectively.

Collectively, the offerings hope to provide developers with multiple options for balancing performance, efficiency, and scalability at the edge. Read on to learn more about the new SMARC-compliant modules.

Advantech AOM-5521

Advantech recently released the AOM-5521 and AOM-2521, two computing modules based on the NXP i.MX95 platform. The AOM-5521 is an AI-on-Module platform built on NXP’s i.MX95 to offer a balance of compute performance, multimedia support, and real-time processing.

The module integrates six Arm Cortex-A55 cores clocked up to 2.0 GHz along with dedicated Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M33 cores for deterministic control tasks. AI inference is bolstered by a built-in neural network accelerator, while a 2D/3D graphics engine supports up to 1 Gpixel/s throughput with APIs including Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 1.2 FP, and OpenVG 1.1. Hardware video encoding and decoding handle H.264 and H.265 up to 4Kp30.

Advantech’s AOM-5221 module is aimed at Intelligent Edge applications. Image used courtesy of Advantech.

Memory is provisioned through 8 GB LPDDR5 running at 6400 MT/s, paired with 16 GB eMMC NAND Flash and 8 MB QSPI NOR for board information. Networking features include a 10 GbE port via USXGMII and dual Gigabit Ethernet through RGMII, while peripheral expansion supports dual PCIe 3.0 lanes, dual CAN-FD, five I2C channels, and fourteen GPIO. Display connectivity includes a four-lane MIPI-DSI and dual-channel LVDS, with HDMI available as an option. 

The device comes with dimensions of 82 mm x 50 mm, industrial temperature ranges down to -40 °C, and TPM 2.0 security.

TRIA SM2S-G3E

The TRIA SM2S-G3E is a new SMARC 2.2-compliant computer-on-module built on the Renesas RZ/G3E system-on-chip. Designed for embedded human-machine interface and edge AI workloads, the device measures in at 82 x 50 mm and consumes 3-5 W depending on configuration. The module integrates up to four Arm Cortex-A55 cores operating at 1.8 GHz, paired with an Arm Cortex-M33 real-time processor at 200 MHz.

Selected variants incorporate the Arm Ethos-U55 NPU delivering up to 0.5 TOPS, alongside an Arm Mali-G52 GPU capable of 30 GFLOPS with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 2.0. Video processing includes hardware-based H.265 4K encode/decode and H.264 1080p encode/decode.

The TRIA SM2S-G3E. Image used courtesy of Tria.

The memory subsystem provides up to 8 GB of LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM with inline ECC and up to 256 GB of eMMC flash. Meanwhile, display options include dual independent outputs with LVDS, MIPI-DSI, and HDMI 2.0b options.

Networking features two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces with TSN and IEEE 1588 support, while peripheral connectivity includes PCIe Gen3, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, CAN-FD, I2S audio, and MIPI CSI-2 camera inputs. 

Aaeon uCOM-M700/M510 

The Aaeon uCOM-M700/M510 is a SMARC 2.1-compliant CPU module built on MediaTek’s Genio platform. 

The uCOM-M700 integrates the MediaTek Genio 700 (MT8390), combining two Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz with six Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0 GHz. Meanwhile, the uCOM-M510 features the Genio 510 (MT8370) with two Cortex-A78 cores at 2.0 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0 GHz. Both variants use Mali-G57 GPUs, with the M700 offering a three-core configuration delivering up to 4 TOPS, while the M510 provides a dual-core GPU rated at 3.2 TOPS.

Aaeon’s uCOM-M700/M510 board. Image used courtesy of Aaeon.

The modules integrate up to 8 GB of onboard LPDDR4 memory and eMMC 5.1 storage options ranging from 16 GB to 128 GB. They support multiple high-resolution display outputs, including HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4 at 4K60, eDP 1.2, and MIPI-DSI, with dual-display configurations up to 4K plus 2K. I/O expansion includes Gigabit Ethernet with TSN support, PCIe Gen 2.0, USB 3.0 plus five USB 2.0 ports, four UARTs, two MIPI-CSI interfaces, 12 GPIO lines, and five I2C controllers.

Operating over a temperature range of -40 °C to 85 °C, the module consumes 4.25 W and measures 82 mm by 50 mm.

AI at the Industrial Edge

Together, the new SMARC-compliant compute modules offer designers a novel approach for performance scaling at the edge. Instead of relying solely on larger boards or higher-power processors, engineers have access to standardized, compact platforms that embed AI acceleration and deterministic control within familiar form factors.