Lenovo Tiny and Coral TPU

[RabidRabbit]

I picked up a M920Q to use as a new BlueIris server for my security system. I am running windows 11 pro on bare metal and wanted to get a Coral TPU to help with AI detection at a low power draw than a GPU and so i can use the PCIe slot for an HBA card to run mirrored storage drives.

I have read mixed messages about Lenovo Tinys sometimes working with the Coral TPU card in the wifi slot. i picked up a Dual TPU chip Coral card that is A + E keyed and slapped it in the wifi slot but i cant seem to find it in the device manager. in BIOS i don't see anything making this work or not work and am running out of ideas of what to try. i knew that at best i would only get 1 TPU to function or been recognized by the system but i cant see the card at all.

I am very new to this coral device and from what i have read plenty of people have been able to slap it in laptop wifi slots and other tiny style USFF pc's.

am i missing something? is there some driver magic? BIOS Downgrade? lenovo whitelist that must be beaten? has anyone else successfully done this on a Lenovo m920q?

 

[panzer]

I have both the Single TPU and Dual TPU with the PCIe card adapter. With Linux in the Wifi slot the Dual TPU you will only see one TPU from my reading. For the single TPU in the Wifi slot no problems with M910q, M920x, and P330 tiny, I also ran the Dual TPU on the PCIe with the P330 and M920x. I can't recall if it will show up in the BIOS. The biggest pain is the drivers on Linux as I had manually go and change some things on my RHEL 9.4 and 9.5 systems. I would guess the drivers but don't use Windows.

 

[piranha32]

IIRC the chips on dual module use separate PCIe lanes, so in x1 slot (like WiFi slot) only one chip is visible.
Not all motherboards route PCIe lanes to WiFi slots, so it's not guaranteed that the module will work there.

 

[RabidRabbit]

I have both the Single TPU and Dual TPU with the PCIe card adapter. With Linux in the Wifi slot the Dual TPU you will only see one TPU from my reading. For the single TPU in the Wifi slot no problems with M910q, M920x, and P330 tiny, I also ran the Dual TPU on the PCIe with the P330 and M920x. I can't recall if it will show up in the BIOS. The biggest pain is the drivers on Linux as I had manually go and change some things on my RHEL 9.4 and 9.5 systems. I would guess the drivers but don't use Windows.

So this is viable hardware wise on an m920q probably. Do you mind telling me what BIOS version you are running?

 

[panzer]

So this is viable hardware wise on an m920q probably. Do you mind telling me what BIOS version you are running?

Sorry for the delay. I don't have a M910Q online anymore but see below.

M920x

BIOS Information
Vendor: LENOVO
Version: M1UKT45A
Release Date: 07/11/2019
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 12 MB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
BIOS ROM is socketed
EDD is supported
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 1.69
Firmware Revision: 1.24

BIOS Language Information
Language Description Format: Long
Installable Languages: 3
en|US|iso8859-1
fr|FR|iso8859-1
zh|CN|unicode
Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1

P330 Tiny

BIOS Information
Vendor: LENOVO
Version: M1UKT77A
Release Date: 04/10/2024
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 12 MB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
BIOS ROM is socketed
EDD is supported
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 1.119
Firmware Revision: 1.24

BIOS Language Information
Language Description Format: Long
Installable Languages: 3
en|US|iso8859-1
fr|FR|iso8859-1
zh|CN|unicode
Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1

 

[OP_Reinfold]

I can't say much about the M920q, but what I can say is that a single TPU worked for me in both a Tiny P350 (11700t) and a M9xq (11400t), however what I had was a mini-pci format TPU, which I then put into an A+E key adapter which I grounded down a bit around the edges with a dremel/file to make it fit, and the TPU was detected no problem.

The same mini-pci to A+E setup has worked in a Dell Micro (30x0) 13500T and is currently in a HP Mini G9 13500T.

I would also advise getting some good thickness double-side-conductive copper tape, that you then stick across the top of the TPU encasement and shape it across to the chassis, make it fairly thick with multiple layers, that way the heat from the coral gets pulled away nicely and you can still keep other peripherals in there without watching TPU temps rise to worrying levels.

ps. the OS I was using was Centos Stream.

 

[RabidRabbit]

I have tired booting this now on 2 different m920Q's. one with a 2019 version Bios and one with a 2024 Bios. both with no signs of anything from the Coral in HWiNFO. i then followed the directions of the below post about getting around the whitelist and one my 2024 version but still not getting any coral action.

about to load a live disk of ubuntu to see if i can see the damn thing with lspci

very frustrating that this seems to be so hit and miss depending on your specific m920q one has. i have combed though the BIO but dont see any setting that may pertain to that m.2 slot.

my coral is the dual tpu a+e version and i am fine with only one TPU working (i expect that).

any other advise or guidance anyone may have?

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lenovo-thinkcentre-thinkstation-tiny-project-tinyminimicro-reference-thread.34925/post-366419

 

[PD_ZFS-User]

RabidRabbit,

You may want to check the docs for your m920q's to see if their m.2 E key slots are using the newer Intel CNVi standard. AFAIK those slots will only work with newer Intel Wi-Fi CNVi modules, because some of the processing is offloaded to the Intel CPU. Thus these m.2 E key slots configured to use CNVi are unable to provide the PCIe lane(s) to the Coral TPU.

I have an Asrock N100DC-ITX motherboard which has one of these CNVi slots (in the manual): "1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 Intel® CNVio (Integrated WiFi/BT)". I have tried using an m.2 E key adapter on that board to run a 1 gigabit ethernet port and it was unrecognized via lspci. On that same board I have used a Coral TPU in a mini-pci to pcie adapter successfully.

Good luck with getting your TPU running.

Cheers,
PD_ZFS-User