DFI CMS631 Intel 10th Gen Core ATX Embedded Motherboards with Q470E or H420E Chipset and Seven Expansion Slots

Some test rigs and machine controllers were built around several PCI cards, for data acquisition, motion, GPIB or fieldbus, and those cards are often validated and expensive to replace. The DFI CMS631 series is an ATX embedded motherboard on the 305 x 244 mm footprint with five PCI slots and an LGA1200 socket for 10th Gen Intel Core (Comet Lake), so the host can move to a current processor while the card set stays.

The socket supports Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 processors in 65 W E and 35 W TE versions, from the four-core i3-10100E to the 10-core i9-10900E, plus Pentium G6400E and Celeron G5900E and G5900TE, and DFI rates it for processors up to 125 W TDP. Memory is DDR4 at 2933 MHz. Intel UHD Graphics drives VGA, DP++ up to 4096 x 2160 at 60 Hz and HDMI 1.4b, with hardware encode and decode for H.264, H.265 and VP9, and DFI lists Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, Windows 11 and Ubuntu 20.04 support.

The CMS631-Q470ECRM uses the Intel Q470E chipset with four DIMM slots for up to 128 GB, three independent displays, an M.2 M-key socket for PCIe x4 NVMe or SATA SSDs, six SATA 3.0 ports with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, and Intel AMT on Core i5, i7 and i9. The CMS631-H420EC uses the H420E chipset with two DIMM slots for up to 64 GB, two displays at once, four SATA ports, an M.2 M-key socket for a SATA SSD and an Intel I219V controller with no AMT or vPro, for retrofits where the slots matter more than memory or management.

Expansion covers a PCIe x16 Gen3 slot, a PCIe x4 Gen3 slot and five PCI slots driven through a PCIe-to-PCI bridge. One RS-232/422/485 port sits on a rear DB-9, with another RS-232/422/485 and four RS-232 ports on internal headers, alongside 16-bit digital I/O. Both builds have two GbE ports with an Intel I210AT controller, rear USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a PS/2 port and Realtek ALC888 audio.

Power comes from a standard ATX supply over 24-pin and 8-pin connectors, and the boards run from -5 to 65 °C in instrument racks, control cabinets and test benches. Optional TPM 2.0 and a watchdog timer programmable from 1 to 255 seconds support unattended operation, and the CMS631 series carries CE, FCC, UKCA and RoHS compliance.