Sidebar

Airtop3

Airtop3 is a ruggedized small-form-factor fanless IoT edge server with remarkable performance, features and cooling.

The ruggedized aluminium case is specially designed to generate natural airflow by the waste heat of the CPU and GPU which allows Airtop3 to dissipate up to 300W without using a fan and operate at a wide temperature range.

Airtop3 has high RAM and storage capacity and plentiful networking and I/O ports. It is also modular and easy to service.

 

Main features

Main features
  • Fanless cooling by Natural Airflow Technology
  • Core i9 9900K 8-core CPU + Quadro RTX 4000 graphics
  • Up to 128 GB RAM and 6 storage devices
  • Rich networking and I/O with support for extension cards
  • Compact 7.5 liter all-aluminium housing
  • User-friendly industrial design with tool-free service
  • Wide temperature range
  • 5 year warranty
Performance

Airtop3 supports octa-core 9th generation Intel® Xeon® E Processors and Intel® Core™ i9 Processors, including the highest power 95W Xeon E 2288G / Core i9-9900K. The maximum RAM capacity is 128 GB DDR4-2666.

Storage is comprised of 6 devices – two NVMe SSDs – up to 2 TB each and four 2.5” SATA 3 HDD/SSD with RAID support. For networking Airtop3 includes two GbE ports and support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 4G modem. I/O includes 3 4K displays, 6 USB 3.1 ports, 3 RS232 and audio.

This feature set may be satisfactory in some cases, but IoT has many specialized applications – deep learning may require a discrete GPU, automotive applications often require high capacity of high-speed storage, machine vision usually utilizes integrated PoE ports.

For these use cases and other, Airtop3 offers functional enhancements.

Enhanced graphics

Airtop3 has a PCIe x16 (PEG) slot with Natural Airflow passive cooling that supports up to 160W Quadro RTX 4000 graphics card. This powerful CPU + GPU setup is effective for low latency edge analytics workloads involving image recognition, machine learning or inferencing.

The four displays of the graphics card can work in tandem with the integrated graphics for a total of seven 4K displays.

Enhanced storage

The standard two NVMe cards and four 2.5” SATA SSD/HDD support up to 20 GB with RST or software RAID and are passively cooled in a dedicated thermal zone.

Storage can be enhanced using Airtop3’s NVM3 card installed in the PEG slot. NVM3 supports additional three NVMe cards up to NF1 30110 form factor.

NVM3 enables remarkable data rate of over 9500 MBps and increases max storage capacity to over 60 TB. It allows installing SSDs with power loss protection (PLP).

Enhanced networking

Dual Gbit Ethernet (Intel i210 + Intel i219) and optional WiFi 802.11ac + 4G/LTE modem are available as a standard. For higher bandwidth, dual 10 GbE card can be installed in the PEG slot. Extra networking capabilities can be added using a FACE Module

  • FM-LAN adds 4 independent GbE ports – useful for routing applications
  • FM-PoE adds 4 GbE ports, each with 802.3af PoE source which simplifies setups involving IP cameras
  • FM-OPLN adds 2 GbE SFP+ optical LAN ports which enables longer range, better immunity and higher security
Natural Airflow Technology

Natural Airflow (NAF) technology generates airflow without a fan.

The airflow is generated by the waste heat of the CPU and the GPU, and cools them down in the process.

Below is an explanation of the NAF elements:

  • The CPU and GPU each is thermally-coupled to a specially-designed massive copper plate using best-in-class TIM. Each copper plate is CNC-machined and mirror-polished.
  • Airtop3 is using high-performance flat heat-pipes – with 25 channels each. Three such heatpipes are arranged in a criss-cross array and pressed together against the copper-plate with direct large area thermal coupling between them. This structure distributes heat evenly on the face of the air-tubes panel. The thermal performance of the heatpipe-structure is comparable to a vapor chamber, but on a much larger scale.
  • The air-tubes panel doubles the cooling efficiency of a conventional heatsink. It achieves that by utilizing 14 air-tubes, each air-tube stimulates airflow by the stack-effect. The air-tubes panel is made of a single block of aluminium that undergoes multiple processing steps:
    • State-of-the-art extrusion with 14 cavities
    • Machining
    • Multi-layer coating for optimal balance between heat-dissipation and touch temperature

The result is a compact, near-flat passive heat-exchange element that can dissipate up to 160W.

To learn more about how Natural Airflow cooling works please watch this video.

Durability

The 7.5 liter housing is all-aluminium made of die-cast and extruded parts with precision machining for seamless fit, shock and vibration resistance.

There are no moving parts in Airtop3 and no filters, so Airtop3 is maintenance free. Since no mechanical wearing is involved Airtop3 reliability is not reduced over time, therefore Airtop3 ships with a 5 year warranty.

Natural Airflow cooling is effective at a wide temperature range. Airtop3 can be ordered at a temperature range of up to -40ºC to 70ºC.

Modularity and monitoring

Airtop3 supports Compulab FACE Modules (Function And Connectivity Extension Modules) which enable various application specific networking and I/O capabilities. A new FACE Module designed specifically for Airtop3 – FM-AT3 adds 2x USB 3.1 gen 2 (one USB type-C) + 1x USB 3.1 gen 1, front audio jacks, mini-PCIe socket with SIM card, micro-SD and diagnostics LEDs for troubleshooting RAM, BIOS and display issues.

It is very easy to install RAM and storage devices in Airtop3 thanks to the clamshell tool-free opening.

Airtop3 includes the I3M OLED display – for displaying vital runtime information including clock rate, temperature and power consumption.