Is it of academic value to submit two papers describing two different but somewhat similar architectures?
You can submit both papers to one or two different conferences, as long as you have two new contributions in them.

Side Note 

It is advised not to cut the "meaty" part of a very nice contribution, into two or more different papers/journals. This sort of "slicing" put your future academic life at risk, because there are some academics that write many poor papers, by just slicing a contribution into different papers; and they are very well known for their "efforts". So, do not put your academic career at jeopardy, and think this through (i.e., contribution(s) you want to discuss in each paper).