Commell’s Linux-friendly “LP-178” Pico-ITX board features Intel’s Whiskey Lake-UE CPUs at up to 4.4GHz turbo and offers up to 16GB DDR4, triple displays, SATA III, 2x GbE, and 2x 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports.



Commell announced the first Pico-ITX board we’ve seen based on Intel’s 8th Gen “Whiskey Lake” U- or 10-year available UE-series processors. Commell has previously tapped Whiskey Lake on its larger, 3.5-inch LE-37N, which similarly uses UE chips. Other Whiskey Lake-UE SBCs include Vecow’s 3.5-inch EMBC-3000 and Congatec’s Conga-JC370 and thin Mini-ITX Conga-IC370. Whiskey Lake-U SBCs include Aaeon’s maker-focused UP Xtreme and ASRock’s 3.5-inch SBC-350 and thin Mini-ITX IMB-1216.







LP-178 and block diagram

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The LP-178 is designed for gaming, surveillance, medical, defense, transportation, and industrial automation applications. The SBC offers a choice of Linux and Windows 10 running on either the quad-core, 8-thread, 1.7GHz/4.4GHz Core i7-8665UE or the 2.0GHz dual-core, dual-threaded Celeron 4305UE. Both offer low 15W TDPs.

Due to the compact, 100 x 72mm Pico-ITX footprint, the LP-178 has sacrificed a few features compared to the 146 x 101mm LE-37N, starting with a halving of maximum DDR4 to 16GB. It offers only one SATA III interface instead of two, and there’s no mSATA. The SBC supplies half the 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 host ports with two coastline ports.







LP-178 portside detail view

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Triple displays are supported via coastline HDMI and DisplayPorts and an LVDS interface enabled via a DP-fed ADP-3460 converter module. An M.2 E-Key 2230 slot supports a WiFi/Bluetooth module. Other I/O includes 2x RS232, 2x USB 2.0, HD audio, and PS/2. There’s a 12V DC input and 0 to 60°C support.

Specifications listed for the LP-178 include:

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Processor — Intel 8th Gen “Whiskey Lake” UE-series (FCBGA1528 package) with Intel Gen 9.5 HD Graphics (24 EU) and 15W TDP (configurable TDP of 12.5W to 25W); defaults to: Core i7-8665UE — 4x octa-threaded cores @ 1.7GHz (4.4GHz Turbo); 8MB cache; Graphics 620 Celeron 4305UE — 2x cores @ 2.0GHz; 2MB cache; Graphics 610

Memory — up to 16GB of DDR4 via single socket (2400MHz on i7-8665UE, 2133MHz on 4305UE)

Storage — SATA 3.0

Networking — 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (Intel I210-AT and 1219LM with AMT 12.0)

Display/media: HDMI port DisplayPort LVDS (18/24-bit, single/dual channel) via converter module or optional DP-to-VGA Triple display support Realtek ALC262 HD audio mic-in, line-out interfaces

Other I/O: 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 host ports 2x USB 2.0 2x RS232 PS/2, LPC, SPI, SMBus, fan

Expansion — M.2 E-key 2230 slot for WiFi/Bluetooth

Other features — Watchdog; RTC with battery

Power — 12V DC

Operating temperatures — 0 to 60°C

Dimensions — 100 x 72mm (Pico-ITX form factor)

Operating system — Linux or Windows 10



Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the LP-178. More information may be found in Commell’s LP-178 announcement and product page.

