The C6043 is a particularly powerful addition to the ultra-compact industrial PC series by Beckhoff, which is characterized primarily by the second board level for an NVIDIA graphics processing unit (GPU) integrated ex factory. The computer thus provides the ideal hardware foundation for high-intensity computing applications, particularly in the artificial intelligence field.
With the ex-factory assignable slot for powerful graphics cards, the C6043, which measures just 132 x 202 x 127 mm, can be equipped with highly parallelizing and long-term available NVIDIA GPUs in addition to its modern Intel® Core™ processors. This makes it ideal as a central control unit for challenging applications, e.g. applications that place high demands on 3D graphics or with deeply integrated vision and AI program modules with minimal cycle times.
The TwinCAT 3 automation software can map these functions fully integrated alongside the classic controller, without additional software or interfaces. With the additional freely assignable PCIe compact module slot, the C6043 can also be flexibly expanded with additional interfaces. The C6043’s power supply and cooling system provide enough power to fully exploit the potential of the external graphics card and the latest Intel® processors.
With the 12th and 13th generation Intel® Core™ processors, the C6043 already offers excellent computing without an external graphics card. For the very first time, the Intel® Core™ i5, i7, and i9 processors have been installed in a hybrid architecture. As with the previous processor generations, Intel® Celeron®, Pentium®, and Core™ i3 offer classic performance cores; Core™ i5, Core™ i7, and Core™ i9, on the other hand, also have four, eight, and sixteen efficient cores, respectively.
This combination of performance and efficiency cores allows applications to be implemented on a total of up to 24 real processor cores. While performance cores are primarily suitable for high-performance, single-thread applications, many additional threads can be executed in real time or in user mode on the additional efficiency cores. What’s more, each individual core can be configured individually via TwinCAT in the clock frequency.