Embedded Computers: What are they and where are they used?

Rugged Industrial Box PCs

Rugged Industrial and Embedded Computers are specifically designed to operate reliably in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions.

Where are they used?

A good example of where a ruggedized, embedded system (box) PCs can be deployed as an effective solution, is in offshore oil rigs. Facilities are often located in remote, unmanned ocean locations – with surrounding heavy machinery (producing noise & vibration) with potentially volatile substances in the vicinity, too.

Just like many other remote facilities, offshore oil rig platforms must always be online. Whether it’s something simple as WiFi Internet access for the employees – or for advanced cloud-based surveillance systems and IoT monitoring sensors. In these environments, industrial-grade rugged networking equipment are far more reliable than the traditional consumer-grade hardware. PC solutions equipment should guarantee around the clock operation in diverse hot & cold temperatures – and where wet and corrosive substances can be prevalent.

Industrial Box PC Examples

Industrial Panel PCs

Panel PCs comes with an integrated touchscreen display (with onscreen keyboard) and can be expanded with different I/O modules. Panel PCs are designed to provide easy interaction between the user and system they control.

Where are they used?

Panel PCs are available with integrated touchscreens display (generally – resistive or projective capacitive (pCAP)) and possess a rich multitude of i/o to suit their intended use, weather this be for general Industrial Automation & Control, Medical – in ward use or critical care or Transportation (rail, marine, in-vehicle). Where required, they’ll carry the necessary pre-certifications allowing them to be operable within their intended environment (e.g. rail –EN 50155). In short, Panel PCs are designed to provide easy interaction between the user and system.

Panel PCs are ideal tools for use in general control and automation processes. For example, where an assembly production line performance needs to be monitored; ,performance data gathered & analysed – where process parameters need to be easily be changed to maintain the efficiency of a production line. Panel PC’s can be used as terminals to provide instruction to assembly workers on production lines – installed at each work station on the line providing information on how to manufacture the assembly, provide checks to ensure the quality of product is maintained as it passes down the line through each individual assembly process.

Industrial Panel PC Examples

Fanless Small Form Factor PCs

Space saving, compact fanless PCs designed for application support in a wide range of environments, such as Kiosk operation, Industrial Automation and Digital Signage. Available as fully configured systems or as a ‘bare bones’ systems (without memory, storage and operating system) for user configuration

Where are they used?

Digital Signage in retail and hospitality, airports and railway stations are good application examples of where SFF PCs can be deployed. They can be mounted and easily secured in tight spaces – and in particular, on the back of TFT monitors via the VESA mounts. Small Form Factor PCs can be connected via Local Area Networks (LAN’s) – either via RJ45 connections or WLAN (Wireless LAN – WiFi), down loading from & uploading information to a central network or cloud  – outputting to single or multiple displays.

Fanless SFF PC Examples

Industrial Rack Mount PCs

Industrial Rack Mount PCs can be provided formats from low power Atom processor solutions – through to high performance series iCore (i3/i5/i7) and Xeon processor solutions. The most popular format are ‘1U’ rack PCs, the ‘1U’ denoting the (industry standard) height of the rack. Additionally, ‘3U’ and ‘4U’ formats are also available were taller solutions are required to accommodate more complex electronics internally (typically to accommodate expansion cards, rider cards and backplanes) in order to provide increased functionality. Additionally, they come varying levels of external i/o – dependent on what’s needed for the application at hand.

Where are they used?

Industrial rack mount PCs can be found about anywhere – but particularly where space is of a premium and fast & easy access is needed for change out of any internal components. Typically, they can be found in any server based applications – from the IT server room of any modern day office complex – through to AV (audio visual) broadcast equipment and military based applications such as naval frigates or submarines. Additionally, they can be deployed in environments where ambient temperatures are present – or harsh conditions where temperature diversity is extreme (-40°C to+85°C) – or there’s vibration present.

Industrial Rack Mount PC Examples

In-Vehicle PCs

Sometimes known as ‘MDT’s’ (Mobile Data Terminals), in vehicle PC’s need to be robust enough to withstand just about anything that can be thrown at them, inclusive of the extremes of temperature where storage is concerned, frequent & high levels of vibration – and be operational via the electrical supply of the vehicle which are typically ‘dirty’ in its format in regard to voltage spikes and electrical noise.

Where are they used?

One of the best examples are emergency response vehicles such as police response vehicles, ambulances or fire appliance vehicles -continually on the move, at high speeds and often through rough roads or terrain.  The environment these vehicles are operational in requires fast and ‘always-on’ connectivity, which typically will be provided via cellular connectivity – 3G, 4G – and 5G.  Additionally, the vehicle PC may need to be able to manipulate, store and send (working as Network Video Recorder) high levels of data such as video feeds during critical situations in real-time for feedback and support – and ultimately, decision making

In Vehicle PC Examples

Other types of Embedded PCs

• ATEX certified explosion proof Panel PCs,
• IP rated Stainless Steel waterproof and Marine PCs,
• Easy clean with an anti-bacterial finish Medical PCs,
• EN50155 and EN50121-4 certified Railway PCs and Panel PCs,
• High Performance Deep Learning AI Ready PCs,
• GPU/VPU Accelerated Machine Vision AI Ready PCs,
• Ultra Compact Iot Gateway PCs,
• Marine certified Panel PCs,
• DIN-Rail mount PCs,
• 4″ X 4″ AMD Ryzen and Intel NUC PCs and more…

Other Embedded PC Examples