As industrial applications continue to grow in functionality and complexity, so does the manufacturing industry's need for higher performance processors. Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), a key application in this trend, is important for enhancing industrial production strategies, especially in monitoring printed circuit boards (PCBs) and integrated circuits (ICs) for defects and making accurate measurements.
PCBs and ICs are getting smaller and smaller, but their integrated functions are becoming more and more complex. A simple circuit board can contain thousands of soldered components, making it nearly impossible to rely on the human eye to detect and monitor defects. As a result, AOI-based systems have become essential technology in today's production environment. Such systems can effectively identify and analyze minute defects on circuit boards, ensuring product quality and improving productivity, thus playing an irreplaceable role in the increasingly refined field of electronics manufacturing.
The ideal Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) solution requires a high-frequency central processing unit (CPU) and industrial-grade ruggedness. It requires that the processing power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) is complemented by the corresponding computing power of the embedded CPU. However, to date, the cost of computing power has been too high for AOI machine manufacturers to fully utilize.
Specifically, the ideal AOI solution is a single motherboard that integrates vision processing (GPU) and compute processing (CPU) capabilities, and this ideal has now become a reality. Advantech has introduced the AIMB-723 motherboard, a true industrial-grade motherboard featuring the AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 series processor and the first-ever integrated AMD Socket AM5 chipset. This new motherboard enables manufacturing equipment suppliers and electronics manufacturers to utilize AOI technology for visual inspection of PCBs and ICs during the production process. During this process, a camera meticulously scans the board for any possible defects or faults.
Advantech's AIMB-723 motherboard provides the industry's most integrated and capable AOI solution. In addition to accelerating performance-demanding AOI applications, it supports GPU card installation through an optimized layout design of the PCle interface to meet the high performance required by vision and compute-intensive industrial applications. The motherboard is highly scalable, supporting three-slot width GPU cards and three frame grabbers for machine vision applications, making it capable of meeting traditional PCI expansion requirements while being compatible with a wide range of communication protocols and I/O interfaces. In addition, Advantech AIMB-723 motherboards offer excellent thermal performance and industrial-grade durability.
With its leadership in next-generation 5nm technology, the AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processor family provides optimized solutions for the high-performance needs of the industrial market. The family is the first embedded processor to utilize 5nm technology and AMD's commitment to provide up to seven years of manufacturing support helps extend the life of the product.
The Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors combine the "Zen 4" architecture with integrated Radeon graphics to bring unprecedented performance and functionality to the embedded market. The enhanced features and high level of integration of these processors make them ideal for Advantech's new AIMB-723 motherboard.
Their thermal design power consumption (TDP) covers a range of 65-105W, enabling system designers to choose the right power level for their specific needs. In addition, the AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 series offers significant performance and efficiency improvements over the Ryzen Embedded 5000 series. At a TDP setting of 65W, the Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series delivers up to a 74% performance increase, which is certainly a leap forward for industrial applications that require high-performance computing and graphics processing.
According to third-party testing conducted by PassMark Software, AMD Ryzen devices perform better in terms of price/performance ratio compared to competing CPU offerings, delivering higher performance value to users. In the competitive performance comparison tests, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 has shown a performance improvement of up to 121% in the PCMark 10 benchmarks and 148% in the PCMark 10 productivity assessment.
