One board, a broad choice of processors. The new DFI ARH171/ARH173 AI-ready Mini-ITX industrial motherboard offers 16 Intel® Core™ Ultra options across Arrow Lake-U/H and Meteor Lake-U/H (15–28W, vPro® SKUs, up to 99 TOPS[ARL-H] ) on a single-board design — qualify one platform, then match CPU performance, price band, and supply lifecycle to each product tier.
It arrives as AI inference moves onto factory floors, medical carts, and mobile robots, where system integrators must balance AI capability, enclosure constraints, and platform continuity. The ARH171/ARH173 addresses all three: integrated Intel® Arc™ GPU and NPU for on-board edge AI, four independent displays with 4K support, up to three 2.5GbE LAN, and DFI’s modular M.2 A key expansion — backed by long-term supply support and a future-ready upgrade path within the same Mini-ITX architecture.
Explore the Technical Specifications:
Flexible. Intelligent. Manageable. Built for Long-Term Deployment.
1. One Board, Two Processor Generations
Sixteen Intel® Core™ Ultra options across Arrow Lake-U/H and Meteor Lake-U/H (15W/28W, vPro® SKUs) share one board design — customers qualify a single platform and reuse it across product tiers, matching each project’s performance, cost, and CPU lifecycle requirements. The board is backed by DFI’s long-term supply support, and the same Mini-ITX architecture is planned to carry forward to next-generation Intel platforms.
2. Integrated Edge AI, Simplified System Design
The integrated Intel® Arc™ GPU and dedicated NPU — up to 99 TOPS (ARL-H) — accelerate OpenVINO™, WindowsML, DirectML, and ONNX RT within 15–28W, allowing AOI, defect detection, and video analytics to run on board while minimizing the need for a discrete GPU — along with its thermal and mechanical overhead. Four independent displays with 4K support (DP++, HDMI, USB Type-C, M2A modular) serve imaging-intensive applications such as medical carts and signage walls.
3. Modular Expansion for OEM Customization
DFI’s proprietary M.2 A key expansion adapts one slot to each project’s requirements — an embedded display output (eDP/LVDS/VGA/HDMI/DP), an M2A-M21 module (SIM-ready M.2 B key + extra USB), a MIPI camera input (MTL SKUs), or HDMI-IN video capture. Combined with up to three 2.5GbE LAN ports (LAN3 selectable as rear or internal vertical RJ45) and power connector co-layout (DC jack / right-angle / vertical 2x2p), a standard board achieves the integration fit that previously required custom development — shortening OEM design-in time.
4. Reliable Operation, Simplified Maintenance
DFI’s Out-Of-Band (OOB) technology via the EXT-OOB module supports remote power control, hardware monitoring, OS recovery, and BIOS updates even when the primary system is unresponsive, substantially reducing on-site service requirements for distributed deployments. Intel vPro® (selected SKUs) covers routine IT operations, with dTPM 2.0 providing hardware security. Operating from -20 to 70°C (28W with cooler) / -5 to 65°C (15W fanless) on 12VDC or wide-range 12–28VDC input, the board is engineered for continuous, dependable operation.
