Advantech Automated Optical Inspection System Powered by AMD Ryzen™ Embedded Processors

“The Advantech AIMB-723 offers the industry’s most highly integrated and capable AOI solution. Because of the performance enhancements offered by the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded 7000 series processor, our customers are satisfied choosing this new motherboard for production deployments.” Harry Weng, product manager

INTRODUCTION 

As industrial applications become more sophisticated and complex, they require stronger processors for manufacturing. An example of these applications is a high-precision Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) system.   

The customer must simultaneously capture multiple video streams from industrial cameras and acquire factory sensor/control signals, all while maintaining separate network segments with redundancy. Additionally, the system must perform real-time defect detection, optical character recognition (OCR), and log all operator actions for traceability.   

To satisfy these complex requirements, the Advantech IPC-7120, configured with the AIMB-723 motherboard powered by the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded CPU, was selected. This setup supports five PCIe expansion cards and two pin-header breakout I/O modules, providing the flexibility and performance needed for industrial AI workloads.

CHALLENGE 

In traditional manufacturing, manual inspection is inefficient and prone to errors. With the rise of production-line automation, integrating machine vision technology has become essential to improving inspection accuracy and speed. To meet these demands, the inspection system must handle multiple technical requirements simultaneously—from reliable image acquisition to real-time analysis. The key capabilities include:

Advantech’s AOI solution consists of the IPC-7120 industrial computer and the AIMB-723 industrial motherboard powered by an AMD Ryzen™ Embedded 7000 processor. This combination is specifically designed for high-precision inspection applications. The AMD solution has helped Advantech enhance product reliability, reduce downtime, and improve overall production efficiency. In turn, its customers can now run high-speed, high-accuracy inspections with minimal risk of performance drops. The system runs a combination of edge-based AI software and lightweight machine vision pipelines on the AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 processor, enabling CPU-only execution of simpler vision workloads while offloading heavier inference tasks to the GPU. An integrated logging service records all operator interactions—login events, parameter changes, manual overrides—storing logs locally and streaming them securely to the factory MES for traceability

SOLUTION

Advantech evaluated several alternatives, including those using high-performance processor architectures. While these solutions deliver solid performance, they found that under sustained high loads, certain models exhibited CPU frequency throttling issues that could affect real-time inspection speed and reduce production line efficiency. The company ultimately chose an AMD Ryzen Embedded processor because of its sustainable high-frequency performance. Additionally, AMD provided strong support for industrial applications, ensuring long-term availability and reliability—both critical for its customers.

RESULT

Advantech has realized the following improvements since integrating AMD technology into its design: a) improvement in inspection speed due to stable high-frequency performance reflected by a 33% boost in overall system productivity compared to Intel Core i7-13700 b) lower rejection rates due to more accurate defect detection, c) reduced maintenance since the system operates without overheating or instability. 

AI plays a crucial role in Advantech’s solution. The system integrates AI-driven machine vision algorithms to identify defects in components. The AMD platform provides the high-speed computing power necessary for AI inference at the edge, reducing the need for cloud processing and improving response times.   

The AMD Ryzen™ Embedded 7000 series processors include the “Zen 4” 5nm core architecture and AMD RDNA™ 2 graphics. With thermal design power (TDP) profiles spanning from 65W to 105W, the AMD Ryzen™ Embedded 7000 series processors combine powerful CPU processing— demonstrating a 61% advantage in multi-threaded rendering over Intel core i7-13700 — with integrated AMD Radeon™ graphics and rich I/O connectivity in a socketed solution for performant, and efficient industrial systems.   

AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 series processors can provide a powerful performance boost for IPCs, workstations, edge servers, robotics and machine vision applications, with power profiles and heat dissipation optimized for heavy workloads. This family of processors provides ample I/O flexibility, in a socketed format for simplified integration and upgradeability.   

In addition, AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 series processors feature integrated AMD Radeon™ graphics with the newest generation AMD RDNA™2 architecture technology to optimize performance, visuals, and power efficiency. This architecture secures a 79% performance lead in video encoding tasks against Intel core i7-13700 and Integrated graphics eliminate the need for a discrete GPU or graphics card for designers seeking to streamline system density and cooling while preserving PCIe® lanes to maximize I/O flexibility.

“Advantech’s design experience with AMD has been highly collaborative,” said Harry Weng, product manager at Advantech. “AMD provided technical support and optimization guidance, ensuring our system fully leveraged high-performance mode for maximum efficiency. The documentation and developer resources provided by AMD made the integration process smooth.”  he added, “Advantech has received positive feedback from several customers who have experienced significant improvements with their technology powered by AMD. One of our customers in AI AOI and machine vision applications highlighted how the AMD-powered system accelerated their AI processing, delivering up to 20% faster performance. This boost has directly enhanced inspection accuracy and operational efficiency, enabling them to achieve better results in less time.” 

AIMB-723

LGA1718 AMD Ryzen™ 7000 ATX Motherboard with DP/HDMI/VGA, DDR5, USB 3.2, M.2