Congatec has expanded its industrial COM product family based on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors and is targeting the edge AI market operating in extreme temperature environments. This move targets the demand for modules that can withstand temperature fluctuations and vibrations, amidst growing demand to process AI computations close to equipment rather than in the cloud at industrial sites.

Congatec disclosed details on April 8, announcing the addition of an extended industrial temperature product family that supports temperatures ranging from -40°C to +85°C. The products are available at aReady.COM and feature a design that takes into account rapid temperature changes, climate exposure, vibration, and long-term load conditions.

This product family presents industrial automation, robotics, medical, and retail POS as major applications, as well as mission computers for autonomous and heavy-duty vehicles, smart cities, outdoor edge systems in the energy and renewable energy sectors, and road and rail infrastructure. The company explained that these modules provide AI processing performance of up to 180 TOPS. It is interpreted that this configuration targets the demand for on-site local AI processing, sensor fusion, and automation functions to be performed together.

The product family is designed with both new designs and upgrades for existing systems in mind. Based on various form factors such as COM-HPC and COM Express, the scope of support has been expanded from high-performance designs to the improvement of cost-sensitive legacy systems. Operating system options are also available, including Windows 11, Windows 11 IoT Enterprise, Linux-based systems, Ubuntu Pro, and CtrlX OS.

It is also noteworthy that the product offers hypervisors, IoT software, carrier boards, cooling solutions, and custom design services all in one package. This move aligns with the trend in the industrial computing market where competition is shifting beyond simple performance to the ability to reliably integrate and operate in harsh environments. With the application of edge AI expanding to include outdoor infrastructure and mobile devices, attention is focused on how much of the demand for field-oriented industrial systems this expanded product line will capture.